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Arab World

Syria’s New Rulers Declare Crackdown as Tensions Flare in Coastal Area

Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria’s New Rulers Declare Crackdown as Tensions Flare in Coastal Area

Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)

Syria's new authorities on Thursday launched a security crackdown in a coastal region where 14 policemen were killed a day before, vowing to pursue "remnants" of the ousted Bashar al-Assad government accused of the attack, state media reported.

The violence in Tartous province, part of the coastal region that is home to many members of Assad's Alawite sect, has marked the deadliest challenge yet to the new authorities which swept him from power on Dec. 8.

The new administration's security forces launched the operation to "control security, stability, and civil peace, and to pursue the remnants of Assad's militias in the woods and hills" in Tartous' rural areas, state news agency SANA reported.

Members of the Alawite minority wielded huge sway in Assad-led Syria, dominating security forces he used against his opponents during the 13-year-long civil war, and to crush dissent during decades of bloody oppression by his police state.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate which led the opposition campaign that toppled Assad, has repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups.

SANA reported that Mohammed Othman, the newly appointed governor of the coastal Latakia region that adjoins the Tartous area, met Alawite sheikhs to "encourage community cohesion and civil peace on the Syrian coast".

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The Syrian information ministry declared a ban on what it described as "the circulation or publication of any media content or news with a sectarian tone aimed at spreading division" among Syrians.

The Syrian civil war took on sectarian dimensions as Assad drew on Shiite militias from across the Middle East, mobilized by his ally Iran, to battle the revolt.

Dissent has also surfaced in the city of Homs, 150 km (90 miles) north of Damascus. State media reported that police imposed an overnight curfew on Wednesday night, following unrest linked to demonstrations that residents said were led by members of the Alawite and Shiite religious communities.

Footage posted on social media on Wednesday from Homs showed a crowd of people scattering, and some of them running, as gunfire was heard. Reuters verified the location. It was not clear who was opening fire.

Assad's long-time Shiite regional ally, Iran, has criticized the course of events in Syria in recent days.

On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on Syrian youth to "stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity".

Khamenei forecast "that a strong and honorable group will also emerge in Syria because today Syrian youth have nothing to lose", calling the country unsafe.

Syria's newly appointed foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, said in a social media post on Tuesday that Iran must respect the will of the Syrian people and Syria's sovereignty and security.

"We warn them against spreading chaos in Syria and we hold them accountable for the repercussions of the latest remarks," he said.

Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major role propping up Assad during the civil war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment that weakened Syrian government lines.

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Arab World

Syria, Lebanon Revive Rail Link Plans, Eye Connections to Iraq, Gulf and Türkiye

Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr and Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny speak at a press conference at the Syrian Transport Ministry. (SANA)
Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr and Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny speak at a press conference at the Syrian Transport Ministry. (SANA)
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Syria, Lebanon Revive Rail Link Plans, Eye Connections to Iraq, Gulf and Türkiye

Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr and Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny speak at a press conference at the Syrian Transport Ministry. (SANA)
Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr and Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny speak at a press conference at the Syrian Transport Ministry. (SANA)

Lebanese Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny announced Tuesday that Lebanon and Syria had set the broad outlines for rail connectivity between the two countries, with a technical committee to examine a unified route linking them to Iraq, the Gulf states and Türkiye.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Damascus with Syrian Transport Minister Yarub Badr, Rasamny explained that a specialized committee would study the technical aspects of preparing the route.

Badr noted that the two sides had reached understandings paving the way for practical steps to serve their transport sectors and agreed to form a joint technical team to follow up on implementation.

He added that cooperation between Syria and Lebanon could help attract donor support and secure financing for joint projects, while efforts were underway to remove obstacles hindering progress.

Badr met Rasamny at the Transport Ministry in Damascus to discuss improving transport links between the two countries. Their talks covered several key files, foremost among them strengthening road and rail connections.

Badr reviewed the state of Syria’s land transport sector and prospects for its development under the national sustainable land transport policy, based on economic efficiency, competitiveness, social integration, safety and environmental considerations.

He outlined plans to rehabilitate and expand the main road network, advance digital transformation, regulate the sector and develop railway projects.

Badr stressed the importance of closer coordination and intensified efforts to improve transport links with Lebanon, facilitate the movement of people and goods, stimulate trade and strengthen connectivity with the wider region.

Rasamny called for accelerating work, exchanging ideas and expertise, and setting clear, time-bound objectives. He said that such steps would strengthen Syrian-Lebanese cooperation, support economic prosperity in both countries and expand commercial transport links with their regional surroundings.

Lebanese government sources had earlier told Syria TV that the official visit was devoted to discussing joint transport and infrastructure files and reviving technical cooperation between the relevant ministries and institutions in both countries.

Arab World

Israel Defense Minister Vows to Keep Troops in Syria During Visit

25 June 2024, Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is pictured in Jerusalem. (dpa)
25 June 2024, Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is pictured in Jerusalem. (dpa)
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Israel Defense Minister Vows to Keep Troops in Syria During Visit

25 June 2024, Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is pictured in Jerusalem. (dpa)
25 June 2024, Jerusalem: Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is pictured in Jerusalem. (dpa)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz made a rare visit to troops in southern Syria on Tuesday, reiterating a pledge to keep forces in the area as long as there were "threats" to his country's security.

Damascus slammed Katz's "illegal entry" into the country, which came a week after Israel bombed the disused Abu al-Duhur base in northwestern Syria, claiming it wanted to prevent Turkish troops deploying to the facility. Ankara has denied any visit to the site.

In southern Syria, Israeli forces have been stationed in a "security zone" since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.

They occupy what was previously a buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the Israeli-occupied Golan since 1974.

"There is daily activity here to thwart threats, to eliminate remnants of the old regime, to prevent dangerous consolidation of the new regime," Katz said according to a video statement from his office.

"The message is clear to the president of Syria as well: when you wake up in the morning in your palace in Damascus, look up at Mount Hermon and see the Israeli army -- you know we are here to protect our communities and our border," he added.

"As long as there are threats, the army will remain here to guarantee our security -- this is what we have done and this is what we intend to continue doing in the future," Katz said.

Syria's foreign ministry said Katz's visit was a "flagrant violation of the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity".

It went on to urge the international community to take "the necessary measures to force the occupying authorities to halt these repeated violations".

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the fall of Assad and made repeated incursions into Syrian territory.

Officials have also repeatedly vowed to keep troops in the security zone, where Israel is seeking a broader demilitarized area.

Israeli army chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir visited troops in the security zone last week, saying the military would not allow threats to "establish themselves" on the border.

During his visit on Tuesday, Katz addressed the strike on the Abu al-Duhur air base, saying Israel had "acted against a Turkish attempt to entrench itself in Syria, at the risk of Israel's security interests".

Arab World

Kurdish-Led SDF Says It Has Dissolved After Merging with Syrian Army

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)
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Kurdish-Led SDF Says It Has Dissolved After Merging with Syrian Army

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, center left, at the presidential palace in Damascus, Syria, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2026. (AP)

The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on Tuesday announced the official dissolution of the group, which once controlled a de facto autonomous zone in Syria's northeast.

Speaking during a news conference at the presidential palace in Damascus, Mazloum Abdi said the SDF has completed a merger with the Syrian army and would cease to operate as an independent force. The Kurdish-led force lost most of its territory in northeast Syria to a government offensive in January and then signed the deal to merge with the army.

The SDF was once the main partner of the United States in Syria as it battled the ISIS group. But after the ouster of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, Washington formed close ties with the new government in Damascus led by interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa.

The SDF “carried a heavy responsibility during one of the most difficult periods in Syria’s history,” Abdi said.

“Today, circumstances have changed, and the country has entered a new phase, one of peace and participation in building a new Syria,” he said, announcing the “end of the SDF’s mission” and “its dissolution as an independent military force.”

Under the 50-year rule of the Assad dynasty in Syria, Kurds were marginalized, with many denied citizenship.

Shortly after the uprising against the Assad government began in 2011, the Kurds filled the vacuum created by the withdrawal of government forces from wide areas of Syria’s northeast. The SDF at one point controlled about 25% of Syria.

The Kurds were initially circumspect about the new post-Assad government and unwilling to give up their de facto autonomy. Some of the opposition groups that took part in the offensive that ousted Assad were Turkish-backed forces that had clashed with the SDF in the past.

Türkiye considered the SDF to be a terrorist organization because of its ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a separatist group that staged a decades-long insurgency in Türkiye. A peace process is now underway.

Kurds questioned whether the new authorities would give them true representation in the new government, while al-Sharaa tried to woo them.

During ceasefire negotiations with the SDF in January, he issued a decree strengthening Kurdish rights. It made Kurdish an official language along with Arabic, and adopted Nowruz as a national holiday. It also restored the citizenship of tens of thousands of Kurds in northeastern Hasakeh province after they were stripped of it during the 1962 census.

Abdi said that al-Sharaa had promised that Kurds would have the right to education in their own language, an important issue for the country’s Kurdish population.

Questions remain, including the fate of the SDF's all-female fighting units.

But the success of the integration agreement with the SDF is a major boost to al-Sharaa's government, which has struggled to unify the country as it begins to recover from a nearly 14-year civil war. Most of the country is now under the control of the central government in Damascus.

The exception is southern Syria's Sweida province, which is now controlled by Druze factions that are hostile to Damascus after clashes last year. The Druze factions have received support from Israel, which is also occupying a strip of land in southern Syria near the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.