Damascus

Smart cards for rationing: how the Syrian government is outsmarting accountability

Feb 17,2020

Reconstructing the nation, one dome at a time

From denial to discipline: Syrian government responds to the economic crisis

Syria’s strategic highways open, interests converge with no clear strategy

Iran’s post-Soleimani strategy in Syria

LATEST FROM Damascus

Civil society in Syria: A hostage of fear, bureaucracy and politics

July 04

“You must be joking. No one can talk, even if [they’re] a foreigner,” was the reaction of a director of a regional aid organization to Syria Direct’s attempts to find sources invo...

Syrians seek refuge in Saudi Arabia

May 20

Amman- Speaking in a hushed voice so as not to disturb his sleeping bunkmates, Mohammad al-Zu’bi recounted a tired story of exile that knows no end.

Podcast: Voices from the diaspora

May 20

Amman- Eight years after the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution, Syria’s civil war remains one of the most important issues facing the international community. The world is still o...

On the anniversary of the peace deal in Southern Damascus “there is no amnesty, no reconciliation.”

May 14

Amman- In May of 2018, Hassan Adal watched as his friends and neighbors boarded buses to take them out of Southern Damascus. Their departure came on the heels of a cease-fire sett...

“No end in sight” A day in the life of a journalist during the Damascus fuel crisis

May 09

These days, Amal Damashqi begins her morning negotiating fares with taxi drivers. After several rounds of back-and-forth, she finally gets in to an already-crowded taxi.

‘From one crisis to another’: Gas queues and frustration as Damascus residents grapple with fuel shortages

April 25

Damascus residents tell Syria Direct of everyday life “at a standstill” as a gasoline crisis reaches a head for a second week in a row.

As anti-refugee rhetoric escalates further, Lebanon ‘slowly moving’ towards talk of forcibly returning Syrian refugees

April 25

In Lebanon, talk of pushing Syrian refugees to go home isn’t new. However, there are now growing concerns that that tone has now shifted even harder

Syrians in former opposition pockets still using smugglers, corrupt security officials to transport themselves north amid ‘false promises’ of reconciliation

April 11

Residents of formerly opposition-held areas are paying smugglers thousands of dollars to transport them to the country’s last rebel stronghold.

The politics of return: Refugees, NGOs navigate increasingly fraught climate in host countries

April 10

When Abd al-Majid al-Qalamouni* first arrived in Lebanon six years ago, he felt like he was met with “empathy." “In the beginning everyone wanted to stand by your side,” al-Qalamo...