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The Rise and Fall of Rami Makhlouf

A man in Damascus watches a video posted by Rami Makhlouf on his Facebook page. (AFP)
A man in Damascus watches a video posted by Rami Makhlouf on his Facebook page. (AFP)
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The Rise and Fall of Rami Makhlouf

A man in Damascus watches a video posted by Rami Makhlouf on his Facebook page. (AFP)
A man in Damascus watches a video posted by Rami Makhlouf on his Facebook page. (AFP)

Syrian billionaire Rami Makhlouf came out with two Facebook videos on April 30 and May 3, loaded with symbolism on a political, economic and social level. Within Syria and beyond, the 51-year old businessman raised eyebrows in terms of form, content, timing and historical context of what he was saying.

Across a running time of 25 minutes, Makhlouf did not try to deny or underplay the prominent economic role that he played in Syria over the past quarter century. Western media often described him as “the richest man in Syria” while back home in Damascus, but few could put a face to the name as he seldom went out in public. Unlike other sons of prominent figures in the Syrian government, he was always confined to his office, away from the media. When then did Rami Makhlouf change so suddenly to appear in two online videos within less than a week, championing the poor while appealing to the president—his cousin—to right the wrongs of the present system?

The rise

It all began with Mohammad Makhlouf, the father of Rami and brother of Anisa, wife of President Hafez al-Assad. As the president’s in-law for three solid decades, Mohammad Makhlouf played a pivotal role in the Syrian economy from 1970 to 2000. From his position as manager of the state-run Tabac de Regie, he sponsored major deals, especially in the oil sector, throughout the 1980s. While Hafez al-Assad served on the military and political sectors, Makhould took charge of economics, becoming its godfather.

Rami and his generation started their careers as partners with prominent businessmen in the private sector, moving on to lead that sector and take over its main firms.

Rami started with a company called RAMAC, handling duty free shops at Syria’s border crossings and Damascus International Airport. In conjunction with the death of Hafez al-Assad and the transfer of power to his son Bashar in July 2000, Rami turned to the promising telecommunications sector. After extensive negotiations, SyriaTel emerged, along with a rival company called MTN, obtaining a BOT license in 2001. For two entire decades the two companies monopolized the telecommunications sector along with its massive revenue. Those who criticized that monopoly, like ex-parliamentarian Riad Seif were either silenced or jailed, accused of crossing “red-lines.”

From SyriaTel Makhlouf expanded his empire, taking businesses in oil and gas, banking, tourism and trade. That came hand-in-hand with the post-2000 period of economic openness. Experts argued that this policy reduced the size of the Syrian middle class, concentrating wealth in the hands of a tiny minority. That monopoly seems to have caused the regime’s grassroots support to erode, snapping the social contract that had existed since Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. Some believe that among the many reasons who Syrians rose in 2011 was to protest the increase in Makhlouf’s wealth.

The first test

Some called him the “exclusive agent for Syria.” Others envied him, wanting shares in the cake that he was devouring. Opponents were highly critical, demanding a different future for Syria, on both a political and economic level. When the chance arose to reform the economy, through the signing of a partnership agreement with the EU, Makhlouf stood as a prime opponent, fearing that it would break his monopoly and diminish his influence.

This was his first test and in light of the mounting criticism, he left for the United Arab Emirates in 2004. Subsequently, and according to former economic official who spoke to me: “That year was the best for Syria in terms of foreign investment.” With Makhlouf gone, many were willing to step in.

He met the test silently and sought invest in the UAE without any fuss. He eventually returned to Syria after the wave of political pressure that mounted after the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. New realities made it mandatory for him to return to Damascus and ward off the international pressure that was being exerted to blame Syria for the murder. Makhlouf’s comeback coincided with what was described back then as the “Beirutization of Damascus” or opening up a series of banks, universities and retail shops that would create a Lebanon in Syria, compensating for what was lost in the economic crisis.

After the Syrian army’s withdrawal from Lebanon, Makhlouf and his partners set up “Sham Holding Co” with the aim of institutionalizing his massive expansionism in Syria. By 2006, Makhlouf was controlling around 7% of Syria’s GDP, said the former official, “but his role in economic decision-making was much greater than that.”

When the protests erupted in 2011, banners and slogans were raised mentioning Makhlouf by name, asking Bashar al-Assad to restrict his role and hold him accountable for amassing wealth at the state’s expense. Opponents claimed that Makhlouf lobbied his cousin to strike with an iron fist, even influencing the content of his speech in parliament that March.

Makhlouf also met with several western officials, including US ambassador Robert Ford and French ambassador Eric Chevalier. Relations with the west were not new, given that the Makhlouf family, Rami and his brother Mohammad, had even hosted John Kerry during one of his visits to Damascus when serving as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee in Congress.

In mid-2011, Rami did the most unusual thing. First, he gave an interview to Anthony Shadid of The New York Times, saying: “There will be no stability in Israel if there is no stability in Syria.” Secondly, he called for a press conference in Damascus, saying that he was going to retire and donate all his property to charity. Many saw that PR stunt as a last-minute effort to contain the peaceful demonstrations, saying that Makhlouf never really retired. On the contrary, he set up his own militia, called al-Boustan, tasked with fighting alongside Iranian, Russian and Hezbollah forces.

Little brother

Rami's younger brother, Colonel Hafez Makhlouf was then serving as a senior security official and played an important role in crushing the protests offering “security advice” to Bashar.

Yet by 2014, Colonel Makhlouf was suddenly removed from his post. He subsequently left for Russia where he remained briefly before receiving permission to return to Syria, albeit as a private citizen with no role in the security services. He continues to divide his time between Damascus, Moscow and Kiev. The exact reasons for his dismissal are not known, although some believe that it carries a connection to Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group that has sent mercenaries to fight along the Syrian Army.

They suspect that Makhlouf was trying to carve out a greater security role for himself in coordination with the Russians. He reportedly also accepted a reshuffle of sectarian quotes in the political system, thus expanding the powers of the Sunni prime minister and reducing those of the Alawite president. What is confirmed is that the regime believed “he was in contact with foreign powers without having permission from the president”.

New players

In 2015, Makhlouf transferred the SyriaTel license into an official contract with the state-run Telecommunications Authority, instead of a BOT as it had been since 2001. Days earlier Russia Today quoted a Syrian economist as saying that amending the contract both with SyriaTel and MTN had resulted in a loss of $482 billion USD, which ought to have gone to the state treasury.

Between 201-2020 new factors emerged. On the one hand, Makhlouf continued to play his backdoor role in the Syrian economy. He did not end his financial support for al-Boustan, bankrolling families of martyrs and the wounded with monthly salaries, especially in the coastal villages. He also provided support for the so-called “poverty belts” around Damascus, in addition to supporting the army, security apparatus and other state institutions. Among his beneficiaries was the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, an old political party in which the Makhlouf family had taken great pride and to which Makhlouf himself was affiliated.

Yet new business figures were emerging—fast, marking the steady decline of Makhlouf’s influence and visibility. Among them were the Qaterji brothers, Wassim Qattan and Samer al-Foz, who bought Makhlouf’s shares at the Four Seasons Hotel. Their work focused on importing oil derivatives from Iran and concluding deals for oil transport from areas under control of the US and its Kurdish allies, east of the Euphrates River.

A new generation of younger businessmen started to take on all important contracts, like Muhiddine Muhannad Dabbagh and Yasar Ibrahim, the most important of which was for a third GSM operator, affiliated with an Iranian firm that is connected to the Revolutionary Guard Corps. And there was the “Smart Card” that controls the daily purchases of all citizens, ranging from oil and gasoline to bread.

Most of the new businessmen were Sunnis. In his second online appearance Makhlouf spoke about “others” controlling the scene in Syria, a reference that might be to the abovementioned names. Accused of being warlords, the EU and US placed many of them on its sanction list, which already included Makhlouf.

Dismantling of networks

In August 2019, Assad started a crackdown on Makhlouf’s network of companies. He started with al-Boustan, which was disbanded although the monthly salary of its militiamen stood at an impressive $350 USD, double that of a regular soldier in the Syrian army.

Then came dissolving of Makhlouf’s “Syrian Social Nationalist Party”. And in late 2019, Makhlouf was accused of failing to support the local currency, which was depreciating fast against the US dollar. The Central Bank of Syria asked big businesspeople to pitch in flooding the market with American dollars in order to depreciate its value and increase that of the Syrian pound. But even then, they were unable to raise more than $500 million USD—less than what was needed to save the lira.

An anti-corruption campaign ensued, along with a pursuit of businessmen with suspicious wealth. Big files were opened both for leading businessmen and current officials. Speaking in an interview in October 2019, Assad said: “Anybody who wasted funds is required to restore them. We want the funds back before people are referred to a judiciary.”

On December 23, the Syrian government seized the property of several top businessmen, Makhlouf included, all charged with tax evasion and illegal profit during the war years.

Wagner messages

This April, harsh winds came blowing from Moscow, where nothing is published by accident and where every word has a meaning. Several articles appeared in mainstream media, including those affiliated with the Wagner Group, criticizing Assad. The campaign came shortly after a visit by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, during which he conveyed "harsh messages" from President Vladimir Putin, regarding the need for Damascus to adhere to the military agreements signed between Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Idlib.

The campaign also came amid Russian criticism of Damascus' failure to comply with Russian, Israeli and American understandings over Syria, and Moscow's desire to restrict Iran's role in Syria. Meanwhile, Russian experts and state-run media continued to say that Assad was the only legitimate president of Syria.

Campaign and appearance

In mid-April 2020, Makhlouf’s company Milkman was framed in an illegal operation trying to smuggle hashish into Libya, via Egypt. Makhlouf snapped that this was part of a conspiracy aimed at tarnishing his name, saying that he had nothing to do with the smuggling business.

On April 27, the Telecommunications Authority announced that SyriaTel was under obligation to pay 233 billion SP ($178.5 million) in delayed income tax, with interest, to the Ministry of Finance Ministry by no later than May 5. Makhlouf responded by setting up a Facebook page first coming out with a written statement praising the charitable work of al-Boustan, then with the first 15-minute online video on April 30.

Makhlouf appealed to Assad to save SyriaTel. “We do not evade taxes and nor we mess with this country,” he said. “We pay taxes and share revenue with the government.” Although insisting that the Finance Ministry’s claims were unjust, Makhlouf said that he would pay it, but only in installments, conditioning that the money goes to the poor. “I will abide by what I have been instructed. I respect your order and am obliged to fulfill it. In order for the company and its work to continue, and for its customers not to be affected by a cut of service, I'm hopeful that you issue an order to schedule (payment) in a satisfactory manner, so that the company does not collapse." But he then said: "I am very tired of the existing accusations, which always portray me as a wrongdoer and a bad person."

On May 1, the Telecommunications Authority replied to Makhlouf without mentioning him by name, saying that the amount due was to the government, reminding that there was no tampering whatsoever with government revenue. The very next day, several of Makhlouf’s top managers were taken from their homes by the security services.

One day after the selective arrests, Makhlouf came out with another video on May 3, reflecting a diplomatic approach with much calculation put into it. In the video, he did his best to come across as an ordinary citizen, in terms of what he was wearing and where he was seated in front of a fireplace. He was also very careful about what words he used when addressing Assad, describing him as a “safety vault.” Makhlouf said that he understands that major risks were on the horizon, but that he could no longer remain silent in front of the “injustice” that was being imposed upon him by the security services. “Those services which I had subsidized for years; who can imagine that they would arrest the employees of Rami Makhlouf.”

“Today, the pressures began in an unacceptable manner ... and the security services began arresting the employees working for me. Has anyone expected the security services to storm the company headquarters of Rami Makhlouf which he once supported and sponsored during the war?” he wondered in the ten-minute video.

"Today, I am asked to stay away from companies and obey the orders ... and pressure has begun to arrest employees and managers," said Rami, who is believed to be in Yafour, near Damascus. He pointed out that he had received threats "either to give up or all his employees would be imprisoned."

The “firewood message” he sent in which he spoke in the name of the “poor” and the “loyalists” the regime used against “others were met by an extended arrest campaign that reached coastal areas. Financially, the communications authority responded by adhering to paying the said amount.

On Saturday, military units deployed near his palace in the Yafour area in the Damascus countryside. The next day, Makhlouf posted a very religious message on his Facebook page. He said “the injustice” against him has reached an “intolerable level."

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Features

Can Sudan's Health Sector Rise from the Rubble?

Entrance to the Trauma and Emergency Complex at Omdurman Hospital (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Entrance to the Trauma and Emergency Complex at Omdurman Hospital (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Can Sudan's Health Sector Rise from the Rubble?

Entrance to the Trauma and Emergency Complex at Omdurman Hospital (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Entrance to the Trauma and Emergency Complex at Omdurman Hospital (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Between hospitals that have reopened after being destroyed and looted, and facilities still struggling with shortages of electricity, equipment, medicines, and staff, two contrasting pictures of Sudan's health system are emerging after more than three years of devastating war.

In Khartoum, major referral hospitals have begun gradually resuming operations as residents return and fighting recedes from large parts of the capital. Elsewhere, however, the picture is much bleaker in Darfur, Kordofan, and other areas, where ongoing fighting, funding shortages, and difficulties accessing facilities continue to deny large segments of the population access to healthcare.

Data from the World Health Organization indicates that around 37 percent of health facilities in Sudan are not functioning, while around 21 million people need medical services, amid shortages of medicines and rising costs of accessing treatment.

At the same time, the organization is monitoring improvements in some states as early recovery efforts and the rehabilitation of facilities begin. This contradiction makes the question more complex: "Has Sudan's health system actually begun to recover, or is what is happening merely a partial restoration of services in areas where the war has receded?"

Hospitals Recovering

At Omdurman Teaching Hospital, one of the capital's largest referral hospitals, signs of a return to activity are evident. Its Director General, Abdel Moneim Ali Al-Qasim, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the hospital suffered extensive wartime destruction affecting its infrastructure, equipment, electrical networks, cables, and generators. In 2024, rehabilitation began on the emergency department to allow it to receive patients, while other parts of the hospital remained destroyed.

With support from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre and its national partner, Kafaat Organization, the hospital received a 730-kilovolt-ampere generator in July 2025, along with intensive care, emergency, and laboratory equipment. Al-Qasim said the support was worth around $1 million.

According to Al-Qasim, the stabilization of the electricity supply had a direct impact on services. The waiting time for laboratory test results fell from four to six hours to around one hour and 15 minutes. Around 500 surgical procedures were performed during the first month of the support, before the number rose to between 1,000 and 1,500 procedures per month, averaging between 40 and 50 procedures a day.

The hospital currently receives around 600 patients a day. Eleven of its 15 intensive care beds are now operational, while the remaining four are being prepared for service.

The hospital also received an integrated oxygen production unit and opened a prosthetics center with a production capacity of up to 50 prosthetic limbs per month during a single shift. That capacity can be doubled by operating two shifts.

But the return of activity does not mean the problems are over. According to its director, the hospital still suffers from a shortage of wards and a need for fuel, in addition to unstable electricity. The return of residents is also increasing pressure on facilities that have resumed operations.

Buildings Have Returned... But Shortages Remain

The same picture is repeated at Bahri Teaching Hospital, which was rebuilt and reopened after suffering extensive destruction during the war. Its Director General, Ahmed Al-Bashir, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the hospital, with a capacity of 640 beds and 20 operating rooms, still needs intensive care equipment to increase its capacity to handle cases around the clock, as well as a backup power source.

The hospital also needs to complete its sewage system and connect it to the public network, or provide tankers to dispose of wastewater. Meanwhile, the administration is seeking to convert the emergency complex into a continuing vocational training center to make up for some of the staff the hospital lost during the war.

These details reveal one of the major challenges of rebuilding the health system: repairing a building and reopening its doors does not necessarily mean restoring its full capacity to provide services.

A Bleaker Picture Outside Major Hospitals

A short distance from the major referral hospitals that have begun to resume operations, the picture can be very different, even within Khartoum State itself. In Fattasha, west of Omdurman, Eman waited for three days while her son suffered from a high fever and worsening cough because the nearest health facility could not provide the services he needed.

Eman said in testimony published by the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, in December 2025 that the area's only health center had just one health worker and offered no vaccination, nutrition, medicines, pharmacy, or laboratory services. The mother had no choice but to wait for a UNICEF-supported mobile clinic that visits the area twice a month. Despite the time that has passed since that testimony, the same hardship continues, revealing the wide gap between the return of major hospitals in the heart of the capital and those on the outskirts of the state.

The gap becomes even clearer outside Khartoum. At Al-Thawra Health Center in New Halfa locality, Kassala State, Noor, who is pregnant with her eighth child, says she previously had to buy the iron supplements prescribed by doctors during pregnancy. At times, however, she stopped taking them because she could not afford them.

In testimony published by UNICEF in July 2025, Noor said that the free provision of medicines had become a major relief for the family after the cost of treatment had prevented her from obtaining the medication.

At the same center, Aisha, a mother who received medicines for her children, said that receiving treatment for free represented significant assistance given the economic circumstances facing families.

In White Nile State, families face another problem: distance. In January 2026, UNICEF documented the journey of Zahra and her nine-month-old daughter, Amina, to obtain vaccinations.

Zahra takes around two hours to reach the nearest health facility from her home. Previously, she had been forced to travel to the city of Al-Jabalain in search of the service.

In the same area, another mother named Amina arrived with her two-year-old daughter, Aisha, after the child developed severe diarrhea and vomiting and became so weak that she could no longer walk. After being admitted to a stabilization center and receiving treatment and therapeutic milk, the girl began to regain her strength.

El Fasher... Giving Birth Under a Tree

The hardship reaches its most severe levels in areas affected by war and displacement. Amani, a displaced mother from North Darfur, recounted how she was forced to move with her family to escape fighting in El Fasher while she was in the final months of pregnancy.

In testimony published by UNICEF in August 2025, she said the family went days without food or water or anyone to help them. During their displacement journey between Sharika and Tawila, she went into labor, with no hospital or health workers nearby.

Amani gave birth to her daughter by the roadside, under a tree and on a small mat, with the help of her mother and some local residents. She said that during the delivery she did not know whether she would live or die, or what would happen to her children if she died.

After giving birth, she was too weak to carry her newborn or continue the journey. She was forced to stop for about a week before she was able to reach Tawila with her family.

Her experience represents the exact opposite of the picture presented by hospitals resuming activity in Khartoum. In areas affected by war, the issue is not simply the quality of services or the availability of equipment, but whether a health facility exists at all.

Disagreement Over the Definition of "Collapse"

These disparities lie at the heart of the disagreement over how to characterize the condition of the sector. Médecins Sans Frontières has warned that cuts to aid funding are pushing more health facilities to close and depriving millions of Sudanese of essential care.

The organization says the Sudan Humanitarian Response Plan, which amounts to $2.87 billion, had received only around 41 percent of the required funding as of August 11.

Sudanese Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim, however, believes the Médecins Sans Frontières report focuses largely on the organization's activities and working conditions. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that it "does not by itself reflect the reality of the health sector in the country."

Omdurman Hospital Director Abdel Moneim Al-Qasim likewise rejects describing the system as "on the verge of collapse." He says the sector is indeed suffering from a major shortage of resources, but has begun to recover gradually as a result of efforts by the state and national, regional, and international organizations.

Bahri Hospital Director Ahmed Al-Bashir agrees that "the description of collapse is inaccurate," while acknowledging at the same time the need to expand support for referral hospitals and provide specialized equipment and medical specialties.

Health workers inside Omdurman Teaching Hospital (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Cancer Patient Searches for Medicine

For patients, recovery is not measured solely by the number of hospitals that have reopened, but by whether they can find the treatment they need when they reach them. In July 2026, Naela Hamad, who has cervical cancer, was receiving chemotherapy at Khartoum Oncology Hospital, known as "Al-Dhura," while her daughter, Ithar Al-Sir, was searching outside the hospital for a medicine needed alongside the treatment that was not available there.

Ithar said in testimony documented by Reuters that the family found the medicine outside the hospital for around 180,000 Sudanese pounds, or about $45 at the time, at the prevailing market price. Her mother needs it with each chemotherapy dose every 21 days.

The costs do not end with the medicine. She said she also pays 40,000 pounds for the bed where her mother receives her dose, asking how the family can afford these expenses when there is no work or income.

Naela says the family had previously struggled to afford food and is now struggling to obtain both food and medicine, while her home was destroyed and she was forced to stay with neighbors.

Reuters quoted Mona Abdel Rahman, head of pharmacy at Khartoum Oncology Hospital, as saying that some patients' doses had been delayed by two weeks or more after the free provision of some medicines stopped because they could not afford to buy them themselves.

The economic crisis is also affecting diagnostic services. Medical laboratory specialist Al-Tayeb Youssef told Asharq Al-Awsat that the rise in the price of the dollar has directly affected the sector, given laboratories' reliance on imported reagents and supplies purchased in foreign currency.

He added that many laboratory owners who returned to Khartoum had been forced to start "from scratch" after losing their premises and equipment and having to face the costs of maintenance, rent, and purchasing equipment again.

The high costs have prompted some laboratory owners to purchase equipment through partnerships and pool it at a single location rather than having each laboratory maintain its own equipment. This is viewed as a temporary solution that helps keep services running.

Expensive Medicine and Factories on the Road to Recovery

The situation in the pharmaceutical market is not very different. Pharmacist Mahmoud Al-Naeem told Asharq Al-Awsat that rising prices and complaints from citizens have worsened since the war, as a result of the destruction of several local pharmaceutical factories, disruptions to external supply chains, and the reliance on imports requiring foreign currency.

He noted that the National Medicines and Poisons Board has begun encouraging the registration of new pharmaceutical products and companies, considering that increased competition could help lower prices.

Some factories in Khartoum have begun returning to production, although they are operating below full capacity. This opens the door to gradual relief if local production and supply chains stabilize.

Epidemics... A Risk That Has Not Gone Away

Alongside destruction, funding shortages, and the high cost of treatment, the health system faces the threat of epidemic diseases. The director of Omdurman Hospital says rates of watery diarrhea, malaria, and dengue fever among the cases treated at the hospital have declined, with epidemic-control campaigns continuing and an isolation center established to handle cases of cholera, dengue fever, and other diseases.

The director of Bahri Hospital says malaria, as an endemic disease in Sudan, cannot be tackled by hospitals alone. It requires coordination among the federal health system, states, localities, and communities, from awareness, prevention, and vector control to diagnosis and treatment.

These risks remain more severe in areas affected by displacement and fighting, where disease and malnutrition coincide with weak water and sanitation services and difficulties accessing health facilities.

Thus, the current picture may not show a sector that has completely collapsed, but neither does it show a health system that has overcome the effects of the war. In Khartoum, hospitals have returned to service, surgeries and intensive care and laboratory services have resumed, and rehabilitation and oxygen production projects have begun. In Kassala and White Nile, there are examples of facilities that have regained their ability to provide free services or services closer to local populations.

But Eman is still waiting for the mobile clinic to treat her son, Zahra still travels two hours to reach a health center, Amani gave birth to her daughter under a tree while fleeing the war, and Naela reached one of the capital's largest cancer treatment centers only to find that the medicine she needed was unavailable.

Features

A Look at How Tariffs Have Shaped India-US Ties under Trump

(FILES) This aerial view shows shipping containers stacked at the Port of Baltimore on April 10, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
(FILES) This aerial view shows shipping containers stacked at the Port of Baltimore on April 10, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
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A Look at How Tariffs Have Shaped India-US Ties under Trump

(FILES) This aerial view shows shipping containers stacked at the Port of Baltimore on April 10, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)
(FILES) This aerial view shows shipping containers stacked at the Port of Baltimore on April 10, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

A sweeping US sanctions and ‌tariff bill has emerged as the latest flashpoint between New Delhi and Washington, adding pressure to ties already strained by US tariffs on Indian goods and Washington's close engagement with India's neighbor Pakistan, Reuters said.

Here is a look at the twists and turns that have shaped India-US ties through President Donald Trump's second term.

FEBRUARY 2025

Trump announced a new tariffs system whereby the US would charge the same tariff rates as India charged.

The countries also agreed to work toward a limited trade deal and set a target of doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion ‌by 2030.

APRIL ‌2025

New Delhi and Washington finalized the terms of ‌reference for ⁠bilateral trade talks.

The ⁠US imposed a 26% tariff on several Indian imports but paused it for 90 days soon after, instead maintaining a 10% duty on all imports.

JULY 2025

Trump announced a 25% tariff on all Indian goods that he then raised to 50% in August, citing New Delhi's continued purchases of Russian oil.

New Delhi termed the tariff "unfair" and vowed ⁠to defend its national interests.

FEBRUARY 2026

Trump announced a trade ‌deal that would cut US tariffs ‌on Indian goods to 18% in exchange for India halting Russian oil purchases ‌and lowering trade barriers.

The countries also released an interim framework ‌for their trade deal.

Later, the US Supreme Court struck down Washington's emergency tariffs, after which Trump announced a temporary 10% duty on India and other countries for 150 days.

JULY 2026

On the expiry of the 150-day period, Trump ‌announced a fresh 10% tariff on imports from India, saying it was among several economies that had not ⁠curbed imports ⁠made with forced labor.

India said about 45% of its exports to the US constituted products exempted from the duty, adding it remained engaged with Washington on their bilateral trade pact.

SEPTEMBER 2026

The US House of Representatives passed a sanctions and tariff bill intended to increase economic pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine and to expand sanctions on Iran.

The legislation also authorized Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on goods from countries including India to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

New Delhi said it had warned Washington that such moves could impact ties, adding it would work with trade and industry bodies to deal with the bill's implications.

Features

Syria’s New Army: Renaming Units or Institutional Restructuring?

A military parade during a graduation ceremony for personnel of the Syrian army’s 56th Division on June 1, 2025. (Defense Ministry)
A military parade during a graduation ceremony for personnel of the Syrian army’s 56th Division on June 1, 2025. (Defense Ministry)
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Syria’s New Army: Renaming Units or Institutional Restructuring?

A military parade during a graduation ceremony for personnel of the Syrian army’s 56th Division on June 1, 2025. (Defense Ministry)
A military parade during a graduation ceremony for personnel of the Syrian army’s 56th Division on June 1, 2025. (Defense Ministry)

Syria's drive to build a national army has entered its most difficult phase: dismantling the armed factions that were formally absorbed into the Defense Ministry after the fall of Bashar al-Assad but retained their commanders, local loyalties, and financial networks.

The first stage of the process grouped more than 100 former factions into about 22 army divisions, according to Syrian reporting. That created a formal chain of command without fully eliminating the organizations that had fought the war. In practice, some units remained closely tied to their former leaders, strongholds, and economic interests.

Damascus is now reassigning commanders and fighters, changing deployments, and placing divisions under a proposed five-corps structure divided by region. The objective is to prevent former factions from operating as power blocs inside the army and to make military decisions answerable to the state.

That arrangement, however, did not end factionalism. It was the first stage of a difficult integration process.

The factions adopted new labels, including divisions and brigades, within the ministry's new structure, but did not fully shed their old organizations or the networks of influence and loyalty they had built during the war.

In many cases, they remained tied to their former strongholds, loyal to their commanders and connected to economic, administrative, and social networks.

The process, therefore, resembled the grouping of factions under one umbrella more than the creation of a unified institutional army.

Dismantling factional blocs

Damascus later moved into a clearer second phase of rebuilding the military: reorganizing units, combining them into new formations, and dismantling factional blocs from within.

This more sensitive phase seeks to break up the power blocs inherited by the new army. Personnel have been reassigned across formations to limit groups’ ability to retain their old structures or to recreate separate centers of influence within the military.

Sources who spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat said this was among the most difficult stages of restructuring the army.

The challenge was no longer simply to bring factions into an entity called the army, but to "clip the factions' wings inside that army." Some factions that became Defense Ministry divisions after Assad's fall retained their organizational cohesion and regional character.

Loyalty to commanders also endured to varying degrees, alongside financial, administrative, and social networks built over more than a decade.

An unfinished transition

The process has not reached its final goal. Some army divisions still retain elements of their previous structures, while plans continue to redistribute them, appoint new commanders, and change their deployment areas and missions.

The Syrian army is therefore caught between two models: the limited administrative absorption of factions that followed Assad's fall, and an institutional army in which factional and regional loyalties disappear and the chain of command and military decisions are tied to the Syrian state.

An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the Syrian state is completing the compulsory integration of all factions and weakening the sources of power they enjoyed in recent years."

The source said the step was essential because Damascus could not establish a unified army or a stable state without it.

The source, who asked not to be named, said the recent dismantling of military blocs included Jaysh al-Islam, which was folded into the 70th Division, as well as the Sultan Suleiman Shah group, commonly known as al-Amshat, the Hamza Division and Ahrar al-Sharqiya.

Similar moves had already affected Ahrar al-Sham and the Levant Front, the source said. Those cohesive factions held economic and regional interests, but President Ahmed al-Sharaa's administration had gradually and quietly dismantled them, reducing their weight within the army.

Factions inside the state

The central task now is to restructure the security and military institutions after the factions joined them, and then dismantle factional structures within the Syrian state.

Some factions remain in the army, but most formations that belonged to the former Syrian National Army have been dismantled, the source said. The Syrian Free Army, a former key US ally based at al-Tanf near the Jordanian border, is also being dismantled, according to the source.

The source said al-Sharaa's administration was fully coordinating with Türkiye and the United States to break up factions within the new army.

Figures such as Abu Amsha, Hatem Abu Shaqra, and Saif Bakour Bolad were Turkish allies, and officials had once expected that sidelining them might prompt Ankara to object. The opposite occurred, the source said, with Türkiye now supporting the dismantling of groups it had previously backed.

HTS in the new structure

Despite efforts to integrate the factions and build a cohesive military, the source said the final structure of the army and security services was intended to keep officers and commanders from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, as well as prominent former Nusra Front commanders, in key command and decision-making posts.

The source said defected officers and leaders of dissolved factions who were appointed to new positions would ultimately report to an HTS figure.

The source described the approach as logical during a sensitive period in which the state faced major internal and external challenges. Political action required a solid core and internal cohesion, the source said, arguing that institutions would remain vulnerable to infiltration and internal rivalry unless the authorities could rely on pivotal military and security decisions.

The commanders' account

Colonel Abdul Muti al-Halabi, a commander in the new Syrian army who was formerly among the Nusra Front's senior ranks, told Asharq Al-Awsat that dismantling the factions was "not aimed at anyone" but was "an existential necessity for building a real military institution."

Keeping factions together as cohesive blocs inside the army would preserve multiple loyalties within the institution, threatening military and security decisions and leaving the state fragile, he said.

"We cannot build a national army if every group continues to regard itself as an independent entity with its own economy and loyalties," Halabi said, adding that the state was reassigning commanders and personnel.

Halabi disputed reports that corps commanders were being selected exclusively from HTS. He said HTS was the first group to dissolve itself and merge into the state, and that it had more organizational, security and administrative experience than other factions. It had governed Idlib, managed complex security operations and developed the ability to control territory and institutions, he said.

"If we kept the previous arrangement, regional sensitivities and old loyalties would return," Halabi said. "At this stage, we want a unified, solid leadership that is not subject to rival pressures, with everyone taking part without discrimination."

Five corps and expected changes

Rashid Hourani, a military affairs specialist at the Jusoor Center for Studies, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the new structure would probably retain a five-corps model, although commanders, troop composition, deployment areas and operational duties could change.

The previous phase had shown the need to make the formations more mobile in responding to internal and external threats, he said. The next structure could therefore change commanders and adapt each corps' methods to its assigned mission.

Hourani said the reorganization was part of a broader effort to rebuild the Syrian army and develop its working methods for the state's next phase.

Syrian news outlets reported that the proposed arrangements would place the eastern corps under Brigadier General Ahmed Mohammed al-Jassem, known as Abu Mohammed Shoura, whose name had previously been associated with command of the 66th Division.

Other reports said Brigadier General Awad al-Jassem, known as Abu Qutaiba al-Shami and previously linked to the 60th Division, would command the northern region as its four divisions were reorganized.

Some sources named Brig. Gen. Haitham al-Ali, known as Abu Muslim Afes, as the prospective commander of the central corps. Other reports said the Damascus corps would be led by Brigadier General Omar Mohammed Jaftashi, known as Mukhtar al-Turki, who currently commands the Damascus Division.

Local platforms reported that Brig. Gen. Munir al-Sheikh, known as Abu Osama, would oversee the western region and the coast through a corps comprising four recently reorganized divisions.

The problem of more radical factions

Halabi said the state was dealing carefully with more radical factions and would distribute their personnel among the corps to prevent them from forming blocs inside the army.

"These factions have important combat experience, but they must operate within an institution, not with the mentality of a group or organization," he said. "They will therefore be distributed carefully among the corps so that they are absorbed into the new military structure."

The main challenge was to move from a factional mentality to a state mentality, Halabi said.

Hourani said foreign fighters, including Turkistanis and others, had joined the army, particularly the 84th Division, and were in principle subject to the same military rules and laws as other units.

"Foreign Islamist groups joined the army, particularly the 84th Division, and the rules that apply to all military units now apply to them," he said. "Any violations are handled under the military law in force."

Asked whether international demands could lead to further moves against radical factions inside military formations, Hourani said the issue would remain part of the army-building process and its effort to draw lessons from earlier phases. He said two main considerations governed the matter, but the source text did not specify them.

How the factions view restructuring

Hourani said factions that joined the Defense Ministry understood the difference between formations created during the campaign to overthrow Assad and the requirements of an army operating through state institutions.

The factions had largely accepted integration even though Western reports warned about the method and its effects, he said. Their shared objective had eased the task and allowed the army formation to proceed smoothly.

Hourani said the continued presence of some commanders associated with particular factions reflected the experience accumulated by HTS's military wing before Assad's fall.

HTS's military wing had developed substantially in training, organization and methods of warfare, and the leadership now wanted to use that experience, he said.

Syrian Turkish coordination and a US role

Hourani said Syrian-Turkish military coordination was public and included organization and training, as reflected in repeated visits by senior military officials from both countries.

He said Washington had accepted that cooperation. He also referred to US congressional scrutiny of the Syrian government's counterterrorism performance as part of the consideration of future security cooperation.

Türkiye's aims

Hourani said Türkiye's role in building the Syrian army served objectives tied to Turkish national security as well as Ankara's political and military position in Syria and the region.

He said the aims included building a unified Syrian army that would prevent separatist entities from threatening Türkiye, citing the former presence of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.

He also cited Türkiye's desire to strengthen its political and military influence, draw on its experience training armed forces in African states and support a Syrian administration it had backed during the uprising.

Building an army rather than merely merging factions

Syria's military restructuring shows that Damascus faces a challenge that goes beyond merely placing former armed factions under the Defense Ministry. It must also end their ability to operate as independent blocs within the armed forces.

The first phase brought factions under the state umbrella. The current phase focuses on dismantling their internal structures, reassigning personnel and commanders, and adjusting deployments and missions to prevent regional and factional loyalties from re-emerging.

Military officials say the goal is a unified army for all Syrians. Questions remain, however, about the authority that figures drawn from HTS will retain, the doctrine of the new military and the limits of Turkish and international influence over its development.

The restructuring is ultimately a test of whether Syria's new state can move from an alliance of victorious factions to a military institution subordinate to the state. The process remains unfinished, and its outcome will help shape Syria's government and security.