Damascus: reassured, yet wary

The sharp divisions of a few months ago no longer appear on the surface. The troubling file of the "SDF" remains open. Mazloum Abdi travels along the Hasakah-Damascus road. Sipan Hamo, through the gate of the Ministry of Defence, has rediscovered his relationships, his friends and his childhood in the capital. It is no small matter that one might encounter Abdi or Hamo in Damascus rather than Hasakah. Nor is it a passing detail that the Kurdish language is being inscribed in the "heart of Arabism," slipping through the windows of buildings once stamped with Baathist identity.

Damascus remains both a symbol and the centre of the state. The government has restored its relations abroad and reasserted control over all its borders and cities. Yet the files of Sweida, the arrangements in the south with Israel and the wounds of other regions remain unresolved.

Economic anxieties

The years of the former regime now feel distant. Another anxiety has moved to the fore: the economy. "We used to fear one another. We feared the walls, the security checkpoints, everything. The new rulers are from among us. Freedom cannot be compensated for; it is beyond price," says an elderly man in a Damascene café. He continues: "But our living conditions are extremely difficult, below zero. Prices are high, and the bills exceed what we can bear. I do not pay the bills, not because I do not wish to, but because I cannot. I simply do not have the money, and there are many like me."

Mobile phone bills, electricity costs, rising fuel prices and food prices weigh heavily on the public. One expert observes: "The two most important issues are security and the economy. The security situation has clearly improved. What is equally clear is that people's living conditions have not."

The new authorities inherited a country devastated, besieged, displaced and divided. The year 2024 marked a turning point in Syria. The year 2025 brought an end to isolation, the lifting of sanctions and the consolidation of security. The year 2026 was meant to set development and reconstruction in motion. Numerous memoranda of understanding for major strategic projects were indeed signed in a celebratory atmosphere. Expectations rose, and ambitions widened, yet their effects have not swiftly translated into tangible improvements in people's daily lives.

Iran war repercussions

The Middle East, as always, is full of surprises. It disrupts priorities and reshapes calculations. The war with Iran stands among the defining conflicts in the region's history. Its repercussions have reached even stable states, and for Syria, they are likely to be more painful. Gulf and European countries, from which Damascus had hoped to secure financial support, will now be preoccupied with their own circumstances and priorities amid rising energy prices and the burdens of maintaining security and averting military threats.

Damascus has managed to avoid the direct shrapnel of the war. It has remained secure within a volatile region and at the intersection of fire. It expressed solidarity with Gulf states against Iranian attacks and opened its ports to supply routes bound for the Gulf. Syria has also succeeded in presenting itself as part of an alternative strategic map to the Strait of Hormuz, proposing networks of gas and oil pipelines and railways linking the Gulf to the Mediterranean, Türkiye and Europe.

These projects are ambitious and important for Syria's medium and long-term future. Yet immediate concerns allow little room for complacency. Among the swift remedies now being discussed in Damascus are reforms to governance, the banking system and administrative performance, to be pursued through a deep structural government reshuffle after the completion of parliamentary formation.

Syria's economic revival remains an urgent priority. It is the track upon which a smooth transition to the future must run, the binding force that may yet hold together disparate elements, challenges and expectations. Grand ambitions matter, but modest aspirations are indispensable.