My Syria visit: Rays of hope and fears for the future
In his first visit in 13 years, former US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford shares his reflections about the war-torn country following Assad's fall
REUTERS/Yamam Al Shaar
A member of the former rebel group Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham stands guard near an image of Syria's Bashar al-Assad at the fourth division headquarters in Damascus, Syria, January 23, 2025.
My Syria visit: Rays of hope and fears for the future
I first visited Syria as a young tourist in 1983 and again in 1987, and my admiration for the Syrian people, their dignity, hospitality and amazing culture and history grew with the start of the Syrian revolution. The tens of thousands of unarmed Syrian protesters in 2011 and 2012 willing to face gunfire or arrest, torture and murder at the hands of the Assad regime’s soldiers and secret police were the bravest people I saw in my life.
But after the fall of Aleppo in December 2016, I thought that the Syrian revolutionaries had lost, and the regime had won. According to one definition, an expert is only a person from a different city. I was later shocked by the revolution’s lightning victory in December 2024, and I was delighted to accept an invitation from a British non-governmental organisation to join them in a visit to a free Syria in the middle of January. These are some reflections from my visit—not from an expert but from a man from another city.
Surprises in the Old City
We stayed in a beautiful, small hotel in the Old City of Damascus, and during my first walk around Bab Sharki, Bab Touma, and the Hamiddiya, I immediately noticed that people were more relaxed.
When I was the American ambassador to al-Assad’s government, Syrians hesitated to speak to me because they were afraid of the secret police harassing or arresting them. I was therefore reluctant to talk to people because I didn’t want to cause them difficulties later with the security apparatus (al-jihaz al-amni).
But now everything was completely different. Many people recognised me, greeted me, and wanted to take selfies. At first I was shocked, but I jumped at the opportunity to speak to Syrians in cafes, shops and restaurants in a way that was impossible in 2011 and 2012. Sometimes Syrians I didn’t even know would join a conversation I was having with people in a café or restaurant. People were relishing in their newfound freedom of speech that the Ba'athists and Assad regime repressed for 60 years.
A portrait of Hafez al-Assad taken down and trampled on, in an office of the former secret police on December 18, 2024.
One evening in Old Damascus we were walking down a very dark street to our hotel. (Damascus only has a few hours of city electricity daily, and many Old City streets are very dark at night.) We passed three masked men in military fatigues with Kalashnikovs.
My experience in America with the high level of criminality, and my diplomatic experience in Iraq around unknown masked men with guns raised my fear immediately. They heard us speaking English, and one asked me in Arabic, “Are you English?” After some hesitation, I answered in Arabic that I was American. Immediately he shouted in English, “My father is in California! California is good!”
When I said in English that I hoped his father was OK despite the fires in southern California, he exclaimed in English, “He is good. No problem! I want to visit California one day!” It was not what I was expecting from a masked gunman on a dark street in Damascus, but as I said I am no expert on Syria.
Tiny rays of hope
And I found little signs of hope among Syrians. The owner of a supermarket in Damascus showed me his store, where he sells quality products that are often imported; he had renovated the Ottoman building where his store is located.
I also met several Syrians who had returned to Damascus and were reopening their companies. One was reopening his international logistics and transportation company office in Damascus; another was an architect with projects on three continents who has reopened his office too.
A Christian shopkeeper told me that he was nervous about what kind of government HTS would bring to Syria
Another evening, we dined with a Syrian businessman and we needed a taxi. Because of American sanctions there is no Uber in Syria, but a young Syrian entrepreneur has returned from Dubai and started a taxi business using smartphones called "Yallah Go". The country will certainly benefit if more Syrians can return with experience and technical expertise from their time abroad.
Of course, I also heard about challenges. The businessmen I met all spoke about the difficulties caused by American sanctions—especially regarding financial transactions. Sanctions and the Assad regime's corruption and mismanagement have caused a massive economic crisis—$100 is a 2-inch stack of 5,000 Syria lira notes that is difficult to fit in your pocket, and you can't use credit cards because of sanctions.
Like many countries, you see a huge wealth gap between the rich and poor. While restaurants like Narinj are preparing wonderful meals, you also see children and even mothers begging on the streets of the Old City; I do not remember seeing such desperation in 2011. And if you travel just 15 minutes by car from the Old City to neighbourhoods like Yarmouk or Harasta, the devastation is shocking.
The architect I mentioned above took us to Yarmouk where we met a mother and her daughter who survived the intense fighting between the Nusra Front and the Islamic State (IS), and later between the Syrian regime and IS, only to have her apartment shelled and looted by the Syrian army. The soldiers left no furniture, no pipes, no metal—they stole everything.
In a district where more than 150,000 Palestinians and Syrians used to live, we saw maybe four dozen people on the streets lined with ruins during our 90-minute visit. The mother had found one unbroken teacup saucer amid the rubble of her apartment. Yet, she hoped to rebuild her home in the district. Given the scale of destruction and cost, how she will be able to rebuild is a big question.
On our way to Aleppo, we drove by Maaret Numan. A city that once had 80,000 residents had only a few people on the streets. It was completely destroyed.
This 2013 pictures shows the destroyed Khaled bin Walid mosque in the al-Khalidiyah neighbourhood of the central Syrian city of Homs.
In Homs, the ruins of the Baba Amro neighbourhood were completely dark when we drove by; there were no lights at all. It was bizarre that five minutes down the road we saw a brightly lit showroom with new Mercedes-Benz and Toyota Landcruisers for sale. There is clearly some money in Syria and many entrepreneurial, smart Syrians. But can Syrians get the financial and technical help they need to rebuild?
Syria's 13-year civil war shattered the lives of millions who will need huge help to rebuild their homes, workplaces, schools and lives. Even something as basic as finding resources to pay government employees will be a challenge.
Fears for the future
But along with hope, I heard many Syrians express fears for the future. After I bought several pairs of gloves with the new Syrian flag and took selfies, the shopkeeper told me that he and his Christian friends were nervous about what kind of government Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) would bring to Syria.
I spoke with perhaps a dozen Christians during my visit and nearly every one had the same worry. It was less about what HTS was doing at the time. Instead, many referred to an incident in the neighbourhood of al-Qusa' in late December when several Salafists appeared with loudspeakers and posters urging Christians to convert to Islam and women to dress more conservatively.
The incident underlined for the people I met that within HTS are very conservative Islamists whose vision of society would be unsettling for many Christians. I spoke later to a Syrian researcher who spent a week in Suwaida who told me the Druze community there has similar fears. The latest horrors on Syria's coastline give credence to their concerns.
Smoke rises while members of the Syrian forces ride on a vehicle as they battle against a nascent insurgency by fighters from ousted leader Bashar al-Assad's Alawite sect, in Latakia, Syria March 7, 2025.
Another huge question is how a third of Syria, located east of the Euphrates River, under the control of the autonomous administration and the SDF, will rejoin the rest of the country? The recent agreement reached by the SDF to integrate into the Syrian army is a positive development, but many festering issues will have to be ironed out before anyone can call this an absolute success. SDF commander recently toldAl Majalla that their participation in the army will depend on their involvement in national transition talks, which so far haven't been the most inclusive.
In January, two months before the SDF-Sharaa agreement was reached, I visited the group's headquarters at a US military base outside of al-Hassakeh in Syria's northeast, the situation was clearly tenuous. The players they used to cooperate with against Türkiye—the Assad regime, Russia and even Iran are now gone.
How the agreement is implemented and whether the SDF will get more of a say over the future of the country and its Kurdish-majority regions will be a key determinant in whether Syria will stabilise or descend into another civil war.
This was my first visit to eastern Syria and first time seeing how the autonomous administration had created bureaucratic structures and political councils that now manage the cities. The autonomous administration has changed the map, erased the lines of the Raqqa, al-Hassakeh and Deir ez-Zor governorates and created seven smaller districts under its control, each with its own local administration, bureaucracy and popular council.
Looking to the future, the autonomous administration under the firm leadership of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party seeks to establish a regional government just as Iraqi Kurdistan established its own government. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish Region Government was formally established as part of the 2005 Iraqi constitution under the eye of the American government and 120,000 American soldiers in the country.
A boy tends to a flock of sheep beside a wall featuring a newly painted Syrian flag in Eastern Ghouta on February 9, 2025.
The autonomous administration in northeastern Syria hopes the Americans will provide cover for a similar set up in Syria, but the dynamics and politics this time around are different. The Kurdish and Arab populations are much more mixed in northeastern Syria than they are in Iraqi Kurdistan. In addition, in the Iraqi constitution talks, which I personally witnessed inside the negotiating room, the Iraqi Arab Shiite leadership—representing the largest component of Iraq's diverse population—supported the formal establishment of the Iraqi Kurdish Region Government.
During my trip, aside perhaps from Suwaida, I didn't hear any support for maintaining the Syrian autonomous administration as it is now. Moreover, the American government, including George W. Bush and American ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, strongly supported the formal establishment of the Iraqi Kurdish region.
It seems unlikely that Donald Trump will want his administration deeply involved in the Syrian constitution negotiations, and there won't be an American ambassador in Syria for a long time. Instead of the Americans, Türkiye is likely to play the bigger role.
For its part, the Damascus government recognises that the country needs peace to rebuild. Tens of tanker trucks constantly filling up with ground water for thirsty neighbourhoods in al-Hassakeh city shows the challenges Syria faces due to climate change and shoddy infrastructure.
My biggest questions after my visit to Syria were whether these two governments could integrate and whether Washington would be willing to help the transition by lifting at least some of the sanctions.
