While Brussels followed Washington in lifting sanctions on Syria in May, the European Union and its member states have the opportunity to chart their own course, analysts argue.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order lifting most US sanctions on Syria this week, cementing a sea change in his country’s approach to Damascus. What explains the shift, and what could future relations look like?
As Turkish-linked commanders with dubious human rights records are commissioned as officers and appointed to top military positions in Syria, questions arise over the future of Ankara’s influence in the state and its armed forces.
Planned talks between the AANES and Damascus were postponed this week, while efforts to implement the March 10 agreement remain slow and complex. Two separate delegations from the northeast aim to negotiate, while Damascus still rejects decentralization.
This week’s violence in Druze-majority Jaramana and Sahnaya reignited longstanding questions surrounding civil peace and the impact of sectarian violence on social cohesion in Syria.
Returns to Afrin increased following agreements between the SDF and Damascus, with some villages seeing more than 80 percent of their displaced Kurdish residents return. Others are waiting for an organized return with security guarantees.
It took years for Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri to move from outward support for the Assad regime to cautious criticism and finally open opposition. With the new authorities in Damascus, he is taking an adversarial stance from the start.
Syrians who lived in areas run by the Turkey-backed opposition Syrian Interim Government (SIG) before Assad fell last year face challenges related to the recognition of their official documents by the country’s new authorities.
Three weeks on, little tangible progress has been made towards implementing the SDF-Damascus agreement, which faces a range of internal and external challenges.
Factions in Syria’s southern Suwayda province are split on whether to merge with Damascus. One side—aligned with Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri—is opposed, while the other—including the powerful Men of Dignity—calls for opening to Damascus and joining its institutions.
