For more than 50 years, Syria was the jewel in the crown of Iran’s malign, regional agenda of aggression and expansionism. After spending more than a decade investing huge sums of money, weapons, and tens of thousands of fighters into backing and propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Iran lost its most prized asset in the space of 10 days in late 2024. In the preceding days, Iran and Hezbollah lost multiple casualties on the front lines. As the regime fell, Iran and all of its proxy partners hurriedly withdrew all of their forces to neighboring Lebanon, to Iraq and to Iran itself.
The Syria that stands today is one that faces huge structural, social, communal, security and economic challenges. These are not just the result of nearly 14 years of civil conflict, but also the cost of more than half a century of corrupt, inept, sectarian and oppressive Assad family rule. While Syria’s transitional government is led by remnants of a reformed jihadist movement, in the past year, we have witnessed the formation of a transitional government in which technocratic ministers from Syria’s diaspora in the US, Europe and the Gulf dominate 80% of the ministries.
In less than a year, this Syrian transitional government has received official visits in Damascus from more governments around the world than the Assads received in 53 years. Moreover, having previously faced the world’s biggest and most intricate sanctions regime since 1979, Syria has been granted sanctions relief at record-breaking speed. At no time in world history has a post-conflict country come close to matching the speed and scope of this rush to Damascus.