Syria today is no longer the country the Middle East had grown accustomed to over the previous decades. A country that was once a troublesome regional actor, then after 2011 became an equally exhausting arena, now appears to be seeking a broad repositioning in order to reclaim a role of its own. Following political change, the end of isolation, the restoration of territorial control and the return of basic security, two challenges stand out above all others: the economy and Israel.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa has been moving with pragmatism tailored to Syria’s priorities, and with careful management of delicate regional balances. The “new Syria” has shifted from reliance on the Russian-Iranian axis towards a space closer to the United States and its allies, without cutting its lines to Moscow. The clearest indication of this shift has been the significant political opening from Donald Trump’s administration towards Damascus, accompanied by oil and gas contracts awarded largely to American companies such as Conoco and Chevron.
Notably, HKN’s agreement with the Syrian Petroleum Company covers most of the principal fields. These exclusive arrangements, which place the bulk of Syrian oil under an American umbrella, cannot be read as commercial transactions alone. They also signal a recasting of the relationship between Damascus and Washington, as well as a calculated wager on Trump.
In the Middle East, and in Trump’s worldview, oil is never merely an economic commodity. It is a language of influence, leverage and geopolitics. This was evident in Venezuela and in the confrontation with Iran. When American companies enter Syria’s energy sector, it suggests tacit American acceptance of Syria’s gradual reintegration into the emerging regional order, or at the very least a willingness to pull it out from beneath the rubble of a long war and away from the legacy of “old Syria.”
