Clashes Expected to Return to De-Escalation Zones in Idlib

FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
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Clashes Expected to Return to De-Escalation Zones in Idlib

FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A man watches as smoke rises after what activists said was an airstrike on Atimah, Idlib province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah/File Photo

Recent military developments in southern Idlib suggest that clashes will renew between Syria’s regime forces backed by Iranian proxy militias and Syrian opposition factions.

This comes as the Syrian regime continues to send reinforcements to the area.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on regime forces dispatching new military reinforcements to their positions in Idlib’s rural areas. Buses carrying soldiers had arrived to Jabal al-Zawiya area in southern Idlib after they were relocated from the Hama countryside.

The spokesperson of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) military wing, Abu Khaled al-Shami, in an interview with the HTS-linked news agency, has expected that the Syrian regime forces, supported by Russia, would begin military action at Jabal al-Zawiya soon.

He added that the HTS is watching Jabal al-Zawiya, amid the mobilization of the regime forces and Russia on the outskirts of Jabal al-Arbaeen, Saraqib and the Kabana fronts in the northern countryside of Lattakia.

Activists in Idlib said they documented over 50 ceasefire violations last week committed by regime forces and Iranian militias. These violations, according to the activists, targeted inhabited neighborhoods and included rocket shelling of areas in southern Idlib.

The shelling, according to activists, has resulted in the displacement of over 1,000 families who were forced to flee to near-border camps and safer areas in northern Idlib.



EU Official: 175 Mn Euro Syria Recovery Package 'Clear Message' of Support

EU Commissioner for Mediterranean Dubravka Suica arrives to attend a College of Commissioners meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)
EU Commissioner for Mediterranean Dubravka Suica arrives to attend a College of Commissioners meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)
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EU Official: 175 Mn Euro Syria Recovery Package 'Clear Message' of Support

EU Commissioner for Mediterranean Dubravka Suica arrives to attend a College of Commissioners meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)
EU Commissioner for Mediterranean Dubravka Suica arrives to attend a College of Commissioners meeting at the EU headquarters in Brussels on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP)

Visiting EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Suica said Thursday that a 175 million euro package for war-torn Syria was a "clear message" of support for its reconstruction.

Suica announced the package in Damascus Wednesday, saying it would focus on sectors including energy, education, health and agriculture, helping rebuild Syria's economy, support its institutions and promote human rights.

"I came here... with a clear message that we are here to assist and help Syria on its recovery," Suica told AFP in an interview on Thursday.

"We want that reconstruction and recovery will be Syria-owned and Syria-led," she said, on the first visit by an EU commissioner since a transitional government was unveiled in late March.

"We want to see Syria to be a regular, normal, democratic country in the future," she added.

The European Union announced last month it would lift economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help its recovery.

"This is a pivotal moment -- a new chapter in EU-Syria relations," Suica said on X, calling her meeting with interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa "constructive".

Like Syria's neighbors, Western governments are keen to steer it onto the road to stability after the war triggered an exodus of millions of refugees.

Refugee returns should be "safe, voluntary and dignified", Suica said.

The EU has not designated Syria as a safe country for returns "because we don't want to push people to come here and then they don't have a home", she said.