The road to Mecca: Soldiers, spies and the new Syria-Pakistan relationship
Pakistan’s historic military and intelligence ties with Syria could help Damascus rebuild its security institutions.
16
09, 2026
11
09, 2026
9/11 through Syrian eyes
Twenty-five years after 9/11, its consequences still shape Syria, from Assad’s manipulation of jihadism and the War on Terror to the rise of Ahmad al-Sharaa and a transformed regional order.
13
08, 2026
Rushed justice won’t bury Syria’s past
Syria’s death sentences may satisfy a thirst for justice, but rushed verdicts cannot substitute for accountability, truth-telling and the long, difficult work of confronting the crimes of the Assad era.
6
08, 2026
From Exile to Damascus: Our new chapter begins
Syria Direct is coming home. After years in exile in Amman and Berlin, it is returning to Syria and evolving into a multi-format media development organization built for the country's next chapter.
27
01, 2026
Op-Ed: Remains in the rubble: Integrating rights of the missing into Syria’s reconstruction policies
As rubble removal, recycling and reconstruction operations continue across Syria, there is an urgent need to regulate these processes in a way that accounts for human remains and the rights of both victims and their families, Mansour al-Omari writes.
20
06, 2025
Op-Ed: Towards results-based transitional justice for Syria
The success of transitional justice is measured not by the measures taken, but by the extent to which they can achieve justice for victims and promote long-term stability, human rights advocate Mansour al-Omari writes.
12
06, 2025
Op-Ed: Civil peace and transitional justice intertwined paths in Syria
With the war over, Syrians face a new struggle: addressing past harms and building a peaceful future together. With everything at stake, civil peace and transitional justice are both essential and inseparable, human rights advocate Mansour al-Omari writes.
26
03, 2025
Op-Ed: How the legacy of Syria’s prisons is becoming a battle for memory
Dealing with the legacy of Syria’s prisons and security branches as atrocity sites is a collective moral responsibility and part of the fight for memory, “the last bulwark against repeating the past,” Nour al-Khateeb writes.
19
11, 2024
Op-Ed: Syria’s climate emergency: Conflict no excuse for inaction
Syria’s environmental challenges have been sidelined—overshadowed by more than 13 years of devastating conflict and instability—but delaying climate interventions is not an option, Haid Haid writes.
23
07, 2024
Op-Ed: How the US is losing Syria’s tribes to Iran
US support for the SDF in 2023 clashes in Deir e-Zor has provided Iran with a critical opportunity to expand its influence in Syria, researcher Ömer Özkizilcik writes.