Syria’s New Investment Law and the Return of State-Mediated Market Access
As Syria moves toward reconstruction, the country’s new authorities have already made a consequential decision about who will control the postwar economy. Last June, President Ahmed al-Sharaa enacted Investment Law 114 by presidential decree, granting sweeping and permanent concessions to investors. Yet rather than make those incentives broadly accessible, the law preserves the country’s longstanding model of state-mediated market access.
How Israel-Backed Sweida Became Syria’s Narcotics Capital
In the early hours of Sunday, May 3, Jordanian F-16 fighter jets crossed into Syrian airspace and launched strikes on at least six locations in the southern province of Sweida. In a statement issued hours later, Jordan’s military said that “Operation Jordanian Deterrence” had targeted “factories, facilities and warehouses used by trafficking groups as launch points for smuggling operations into Jordan.”
US-Iran War Gives Syria’s Global Economic Pitch More Urgency
When the United States and Israel launched military operations against Iran a month ago, the Middle East was plunged into debilitating conflict. Nevertheless, Syria has remarkably just completed its most stable month in 15 years. Damascus and its international partners must capitalize on this opportunity.
MEI’s Syria Initiative seeks to provide insightful and grounded research and analysis on all things Syria in order to better inform a wide range of audiences and to help sustain and shape a more meaningful policy-oriented discussion.
The Middle East Institute, The Atlantic Council, and European Institute of Peace collaborate with subject matter experts and policymakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East to develop a holistic strategy to sustainably forge a pathway to resolving Syria’s crisis.
The Damascus-SDF agreement two months on: Fragile progress or delayed collapse?
On March 10, 2025, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the president of Syria, and Mazloum Abdi, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, signed a historic agreement, ending a long-running divide between Damascus and the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. Now, two months after the deal was signed, how far has it progressed, and what are the main obstacles and disputes between the parties during this transitional phase?
It’s time to end the EU’s Assad-era sanctions on Syria
As the EU prepares for its annual review of sanctions imposed on Syria, it faces a moment of reckoning — an opportunity to demonstrate whether its policies not only continue to be principled and legal, but also in line with its strategic interests. They no longer serve the purpose for which they were designed, and the EU should let the entire sanctions regime on Syria collapse unconditionally and immediately.
لعدة أشهر، حاولت الحكومة التركية تحقيق ثلاث مهام رئيسية في وقت واحد أو تقريبًا لترسيخ قبضتها على السلطة في الداخل وتعزيز نفوذها في المنطقة بشكل عام. ويتألف نهجها الثلاثي لتحقيق هذا الهدف من السعي إلى 1) سحق الديمقراطية وتدمير المعارضة السياسية في تركيا من خلال توجيه تهم جنائية خطيرة ضد إكرم إمام أوغلو، عمدة إسطنبول الشهير؛ 2) ضم الحزب التركي المؤيد للأكراد إلى ائتلاف للفوز في الانتخابات الوطنية المقبلة مع استمرار الرئيس الحالي رجب طيب أردوغان في حكمه الذي دام 22 عامًا؛ و 3) الاستفادة من نفوذها الجديد والقوي في سوريا لتحييد القوة الكردية في الشمال الشرقي وفي الحكومة الوطنية السورية.
ISIS is on the ropes in Syria. A successful transition in Damascus could deliver a knockout blow
For much of the past two decades, ISIS has enjoyed favorable conditions in Syria, but since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, dynamics have changed. With Assad’s departure, ISIS lost its long-standing and vitally important safe haven in Syria’s central desert and its most significant driver for recruitment. The results — so far — have been dramatic.
Reimagining Syria: A Roadmap for Peace and Prosperity Beyond Assad
The work of the Syria Strategy Project and the considerable policy recommendations found in this report present a realistic and holistic vision for Syria’s recovery and reintegration into the international system.
Trump brings his foreign policy improv act to the Middle East
While most media attention was focused on its global economic policy moves, the Trump administration continued to keep the Middle East high on its agenda this past week, with the president sending a letter to Iran’s supreme leader and his team directly engaging with the Palestinian group Hamas. This continued engagement on the region’s top two strategic questions, Iran and Arab-Israel affairs, contrasted with America’s hands-off approach to Syria, which saw some troubling violence.
The national dialogue in Syria: A step forward or a concerning trajectory?
Syria’s national dialogue, held in Damascus at the end of February, was intended to chart the country’s future, one that would have been unthinkable just three months earlier. However, the process and outcomes of the dialogue were flawed, left critical questions unanswered, and raised new concerns.
إعادة توازن استراتيجية روسيا في منطقة البحر الأبيض المتوسط: من إظهار القوة إلى التراجع إلى المنطقة الرمادية
سيكون من الصعب للغاية على موسكو الحفاظ على قواعدها العسكرية في سوريا أو إيجاد موقع بديل في البحر الأبيض المتوسط. وجزء من المشكلة في السعي وراء الخيار الأخير، خاصة إذا كان في ليبيا، هو أنه سيتطلب تحولاً كاملاً في نموذج الوجود العسكري الروسي — من قواعد أكثر تقليدية مصممة لفرض الردع من خلال إظهار العلم في المنطقة إلى بناء عملية عسكرية ولوجستية داخل "منطقة رمادية" أمنية.
ما وراء "الضغط الأقصى" في سياسة الولايات المتحدة تجاه إيران: الاستفادة من الشركاء الإقليميين لاحتواء تصرفات إيران وتشكيل خياراتها المستقبلية
في ولايته الثانية، يواجه الرئيس دونالد ترامب منطقة الشرق الأوسط التي تشهد اضطرابات متعددة الأوجه وجمهورية إيران الإسلامية التي تمر حالياً بأضعف وأكثر مواقفها عزلة منذ تأسيس النظام في عام 1979. ومع ذلك، وبعيداً عن الخضوع الدائم، تواصل طهران الاقتراب من بناء سلاح نووي، وتحاول الحفاظ على شبكتها الإقليمية من الوكلاء والحلفاء غير الحكوميين. يواجه ترامب الآن خيارًا استراتيجيًا مهمًا بشأن سياسة إيران. يحلل هذا التقرير ثلاث ديناميات شاملة: التغيرات الاستراتيجية في الشرق الأوسط في 2023-2024؛ وتأثير هذه التغيرات على إيران وشبكة محور المقاومة؛ وموقف إيران الحالي ومكانتها في الداخل وفي المنطقة. ويختتم التقرير بسلسلة من التوصيات الاستراتيجية للإدارة الجديدة.
Will Damascus-SDF negotiations lead to agreement or escalation?
It is becoming apparent that negotiations between the new leadership in Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) face significant obstacles due to disagreements over military structure and administrative demands. These issues reflect the difficulty of reaching a mutual understanding between the two parties. As these challenges persist, there is growing talk of a potential military escalation in eastern Syria, amid residents’ fears and international mediation efforts to contain the crisis and achieve progress in the negotiations.
Syria’s first post-Assad protests broke out on Dec. 25 after a video claiming to show the destruction of an Alawite shrine spread rapidly across Facebook. The video was quickly debunked as several weeks old, the shrine only partially damaged, and the damage occurring during the capture of Aleppo city rather than in an act of sectarian vandalism. But those first hours were enough to stir up the widespread fears lingering just below the surface among Syria’s Alawite minority, bringing many Alawites (as well as Sunnis) to the streets to denounce sectarianism.
A different Middle East: How should Washington respond?
A very different Middle East will greet President-elect Trump this month compared to the region he experienced during his first term. However, there are opportunities to advance American interests for a more stable and less conflictual Middle East, which might not require the kind of intense US commitment we have seen over the last quarter-century.
MEI’s Syria Initiative seeks to provide insightful and grounded research and analysis on all things Syria in order to better inform a wide range of audiences and to help sustain and shape a more meaningful policy-oriented discussion. Drawing on the expertise of over a dozen renowned scholars, the Syria Program covers all aspects of Syria and its ongoing crises – from political, economic, legal, social, ethnic and religious dynamics, to conflict, insurgency and terrorism and the country’s history and possible futures.
