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Foreign Armies in Syria and How They Came to Be There

FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
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Foreign Armies in Syria and How They Came to Be There

FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cars drive past a poster depicting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Damascus, Syria, March 7, 2022. REUTERS/Firas Makdesi/File Photo

The resurgence of fighting in Syria has brought into focus the role of foreign powers in the country. Türkiye, Iran, Russia and the United States have all deployed troops in Syria since 2011, while Israel mounts frequent airstrikes in Syrian territory.
Here is some background on the foreign armies in Syria.
TURKIYE
Türkiye has deployed troops across northwestern Syria - territory held by Syrian opposition groups which rose up against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011. Türkiye, which firmly supported the 2011 uprising, backs some of these groups.
One of Türkiye’s main goals has been to weaken Syrian Kurdish armed groups which carved out autonomous enclaves along the Turkish border during the civil war. Ankara views the Syrian Kurdish groups an extension of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which has been waging an insurgency in Türkiye since 1984.
Ankara deems the PKK a terrorist group.
Another pressing Turkish concern is securing a return home for some of 3 million Syrians who have fled to Türkiye during the war, many of whom came from the Aleppo region.
Türkiye has mounted four operations in Syria since 2016.
Its first targeted both the ISIS group and the Syrian Kurdish YPG, a Syrian Kurdish faction and the spearhead of another military grouping, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Türkiye’s presence expanded in 2017 when it struck a deal with Russia and Iran that resulted in Turkish forces deploying at 12 positions in the opposition-held northwestern Idlib region.
This was followed in 2018 by an offensive targeting SDF-controlled Afrin, and another incursion in 2019 into SDF territory between the border towns of Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad.
The following year Türkiye poured thousands of troops into the Idlib region to stem an offensive by Russia-backed Syrian government forces targeting opposition factions.
Damascus views Türkiye as an occupying power.
RUSSIA
Russia intervened militarily on Assad's side in 2015, in its biggest foray in the Middle East since the Soviet Union's collapse. Operating from an airbase in Latakia province, Russian air power decisively tilted the conflict Assad's way.
Coordinated with Iran, the deployment expanded a Russian military presence dating to the Cold War, when the Soviet Union established a naval base at the Syrian Mediterranean port of Tartus.
Russian forces have also had a presence on the ground in government-held areas, with Russian military police deploying during attempts to de-escalate fighting.
Russia is continuing to support Assad, the Kremlin has said.
IRAN AND ALLIES
Iran deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria as early as 2012 to help Assad. Lebanon's Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, played a big part.
For Iran, Assad is a crucial ally, part of its "Axis of Resistance" to Israel and US influence in the Middle East.
Tehran's ties to Damascus have allowed Iran to spread its influence through a land corridor from its western border via Iraq all the way to Lebanon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in an Arabic-language interview on Dec. 3 that Tehran would consider sending troops to Syria if Damascus asked.
Tehran has always described Iranian forces as playing an advisory role at the Damascus government's invitation.
Alongside Iranians and Lebanon's Hezbollah, other Shi'ite groups backed by Tehran have played a vital combat role. They have included groups from Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hezbollah pulled fighters from Syria back to Lebanon as its war with Israel intensified from mid-October, Reuters has reported. While a ceasefire was reached last week, Hezbollah does not currently intend to send fighters to northern Syria to support the Syrian army, Reuters reported.
The presence of Iranian and Iran-backed forces in Syria has been a big point of concern for Israel, prompting it to carry out frequent airstrikes in Syria.
THE UNITED STATES
The US military intervention in Syria began in 2014 with air strikes against the ISIS group that had declared its rule over a third of Syria and Iraq.
An initially small contingent of US special forces deployed to Syria, working with the SDF, fighting to drive ISIS from areas it had captured in Syria's north and east.
Declaring the battle with ISIS almost won, Trump announced in 2018 he wanted to pull out US troops.
But the plan was softened within a year after facing criticism for leaving a void that Iran and Russia would fill.
US forces remain in Syria and continue to support the SDF.
US military positions and personnel in northeastern Syria remain essential to ensuring ISIS can never resurge, US Ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council on Dec. 3.
US troops are also stationed at Syria's Tanf garrison near the intersection of the borders of Jordan and Iraq, where they support a Syrian opposition force to counter ISIS in the area.
Assad's government views the US forces as occupiers.
About 900 US troops are currently in the country, mostly in the northeast.

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Features

The Iran War Has Revealed Trump's Pressure Point: The Economy

President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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The Iran War Has Revealed Trump's Pressure Point: The Economy

President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
President Donald Trump waves to reporters as he walks on the South Lawn upon his arrival to the White House, Friday, April 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Seven weeks of war have failed to topple Iran’s theocratic rulers or force them to meet all of President Donald Trump's demands, but for US adversaries and allies it has cast a spotlight on one of his central vulnerabilities: economic pressure.

Even with Iran’s announcement on Friday that it was reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping, the Middle East crisis has revealed the limits of Trump's willingness to tolerate domestic economic pain.

Trump joined Israel in attacking Iran on February 28 based on what he said were imminent security threats, especially over its nuclear program. But now, with US gasoline prices high, inflation rising and his approval ratings down, Trump is racing to secure a diplomatic deal that could stem the fallout at home.

Iran has taken a beating militarily, but demonstrated it can exact economic costs that Trump and his aides underestimated, unleashing the worst-ever global energy shock, analysts say.

RISING ENERGY COSTS, RECESSION RISK

Trump has often publicly shrugged off domestic economic concerns driven by the war. But he can hardly ignore that though the US does not depend on the one-fifth of global oil shipments that were effectively blocked by Iran’s chokehold on the strait, surging energy costs have hit US consumers. The International Monetary Fund’s warning of a risk of global recession adds to the gloom.

Pressure for a way out of the unpopular war has mounted as Trump’s fellow Republicans defend narrow majorities in Congress in the November midterm elections.

None of this has been lost on Iran's leaders, who have used their grip on the strait to push Trump's team to the negotiating table.

Analysts say US rivals China and Russia may draw their own lesson: while Trump has shown an appetite for military force in his second term, he looks for a diplomatic off-ramp as soon as the economic heat becomes uncomfortable at home.

“Trump is feeling the economic pinch, which is his Achilles heel in this war of choice,” said Brett Bruen, a former foreign policy adviser in the Obama administration who heads the Global Situation Room strategic consultancy.

White House spokesman Kush Desai said that while working toward a deal with Iran to resolve "temporary" energy market problems, the administration "has never lost focus on implementing the president’s affordability and growth agenda."

FEELING THE PRESSURE

Trump’s abrupt shift on April 8 from airstrikes to diplomacy followed pressure from financial markets and parts of his base.

Some of the economic pain is borne by US farmers, a key Trump constituency, due to disrupted fertilizer shipments, and is also reflected in higher airfares from increased jet fuel prices.

With the clock ticking on a two-week ceasefire, it remains to be seen whether a president who embraces unpredictability will reach a deal that meets his war goals, extend the truce beyond April 21, or relaunch the bombing campaign.

But global oil prices fell sharply and financial markets, which Trump often sees as a barometer of his success, flourished on Friday after Iran said the strait would be open for the remainder of a separate US-brokered 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon.

Trump was quick to declare the strait safe as he touted a deal-in-the-making with Iran that he said would be completed soon and mostly on his terms. But Iranian sources told Reuters gaps remained to be resolved. Experts have warned that even if the war ends soon, the economic damage could take months if not years to fix. A key question is whether any deal achieves the objectives Trump has laid out, including closing Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has long denied it is seeking.

Iran has a stockpile of highly enriched uranium believed buried by US-Israeli strikes in June. Trump told Reuters on Friday the emerging deal calls for the US to work with Iran to recover the material and bring it to the US. Iran denied agreeing to a transfer anywhere outside its territory.

A senior Trump administration official said the US was maintaining "several redlines" in negotiations with Iran. At the same time, Trump’s call at the war’s outset for Iranians to overthrow their government has gone unheeded. Allies from Europe to Asia were initially stunned by Trump’s decision to go to war without consulting them or seeming to take into account the risk to them of Iran closing the strait.

“The alarm bell ringing for allies right now is how the war has highlighted that the administration can act erratically, without much regard for consequences,” said Gregory Poling, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, former Democratic President Joe Biden was cautious about imposing sanctions on Moscow’s energy sector out of concern for reducing oil supplies and inflating US gas prices.

But Trump, who ran for a second term on promises of cheap gas and low inflation, has shown himself sensitive to accusations that his policies raise prices. An example was when he reduced tariffs on China last year after it retaliated.

A motorist fills up his truck for over a $100 at a gas station in Los Angeles on Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

MISCALCULATIONS

Just as Trump misjudged Beijing’s response in a trade war, he seems to have miscalculated how Iran might strike back economically in a shooting war by attacking energy infrastructure in Gulf states and blocking the strategic waterway between them.

Trump mistakenly believed the war would be a limited operation like the January 3 lightning raid in Venezuela and June’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, US officials have said privately. But this time the repercussions are more far-reaching.

The message to Asian allies such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan may be that Trump, who is looking for warmer ties with China, can be expected to pursue his regional goals with less regard for their geopolitical and economic security.

Analysts believe those governments will adjust for any contingency, such as a Chinese bid to seize Taiwan, out of concern over Trump’s reliability.

Features

In Final Moments Before Truce, Israeli Strike Kills Lebanese Man’s Family

A woman reacts as emergency personnel search for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike carried out just before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman reacts as emergency personnel search for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike carried out just before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
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In Final Moments Before Truce, Israeli Strike Kills Lebanese Man’s Family

A woman reacts as emergency personnel search for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike carried out just before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)
A woman reacts as emergency personnel search for survivors at the site of an Israeli strike carried out just before a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, in Tyre, Lebanon, April 17, 2026. (Reuters)

Hassan Abu Khalil's family miraculously survived six weeks of war in southern Lebanon, but tragedy struck in the final minutes before a ceasefire came into force. An Israeli strike late on Thursday killed 13 of his relatives, leaving him the sole survivor.

Abu Khalil, 36, stepped out to see friends just before midnight, when a US-brokered truce between Lebanon and Israel was meant to halt fighting that had raged since March 2 between Israel and armed group Hezbollah.

“I heard a very powerful strike, and when I came ‌back to the neighborhood, ‌I found this had happened," Abu Khalil told Reuters on ‌Friday ⁠as he watched ⁠a bulldozer dig through the mountains of pulverized concrete that was once his home in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre.

"In this building, more than 13 members of my family are missing under the rubble. What then, Israel? Just before the ceasefire, it was one massacre after another against us," he said.

Later on Friday, Lebanon's state news agency said rescue teams had recovered 13 bodies and pulled 35 wounded survivors from the ruins ⁠of the building that was hit the previous evening. It ‌reported that 15 other people were unaccounted for.

The ‌Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the strike.

Lebanon's health ministry ‌says 2,294 people have been killed between March 2 and Thursday, when the ‌ceasefire came into force. The toll includes 177 children and 274 women.

'MY FUTURE IS GONE'

On Friday, thousands of Lebanese streamed through Tyre on the way to their southern villages. They crossed over a dirt berm that Lebanese soldiers had erected over the ruins of a main bridge ‌destroyed by Israel earlier on Thursday. Many were relieved to return to their southern villages, even if they were destroyed.

But ⁠Abu Khalil spent ⁠the first day of the ceasefire in a haze of despair, unable to eat or sleep.

He stood wringing his hands next to a bulldozer working through the ruins, his eyes locked on the gaping hole that rescuers were searching.

"Since the strike, I've been here and haven't gone anywhere. Every time they pull someone out, we run over to see what happened, who it is - my friend I grew up with, my friend's mother, my friend's father," Abu Khalil said.

He said he had been living in the United Kingdom but returned to Lebanon to be with his extended family.

"Who is left? No one is left. I wish I had never gone out for that coffee and had stayed with them," he said.

“My future is gone here. This was my life, this was my family - what now? What more is there after this?"

Features

Can Iran Legally Impose Tolls on the Strait of Hormuz?

FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
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Can Iran Legally Impose Tolls on the Strait of Hormuz?

FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Cargo ships in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo

Tehran has sought to tighten its grip over the Strait of Hormuz by charging tolls on vessels to ensure safe passage, in conjunction with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The following explains law governing toll collections and actions that countries opposed to tolls might take, according to Reuters.

WHAT IS THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ?

The Strait of Hormuz is ‌a waterway connecting the Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, and located within Iran's and Oman's territorial waters. It is perhaps the world's most important energy shipping lane. About 20% of the world's oil passes through it.

The waterway is about 104 miles (167 km) long. Its width varies, and at its narrowest point provides 2-mile channels for inbound and outbound shipping, separated by a 2-mile buffer zone.

Iran effectively closed the strait following US-Israeli strikes on the country, and has demanded a right ⁠to collect tolls as a precondition to ending the war. The status of any toll collections so far could not immediately be confirmed.

WHAT LAW GOVERNS PASSAGE ON THE STRAIT?

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, opens new tab, sometimes known as UNCLOS, was adopted in 1982 and has been in force since 1994.

Article 38 provides vessels a right of unimpeded "transit passage" through more than 100 straits worldwide, including the Strait of Hormuz.

The treaty allows a country bordering a strait to regulate passage within its "territorial sea," up to 12 nautical miles from its border, but shall permit "innocent passage."

Passage is innocent if it is not prejudicial to a country's peace, good order and security. Military action, serious pollution, spying and fishing are not permitted. The concept of innocent passage was key to a 1949 International Court ‌of ⁠Justice case concerning the Corfu Channel, along the coasts of Albania and Greece.

Approximately 170 countries and the European Union have ratified UNCLOS. Iran and the United States have not. This raises the question of whether the treaty's rules affording freedom of maritime navigation have become part of customary international law, or bind only ratifying countries.

Experts say UNCLOS has become or is generally viewed as customary international law. Some non-ratifying countries may ⁠argue that they need not follow the treaty because they persistently and consistently object. Iran has argued that it has made such objections. The United States disputes Iran's authority to charge tolls.

HOW CAN TOLLS BE CHALLENGED?

There is no formal mechanism to enforce UNCLOS. The International Tribunal for the Law ⁠of the Sea in Hamburg, Germany, which the treaty established, and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands could issue rulings but cannot enforce them.

Countries and businesses have other potential means to counteract tolls.

A willing state or coalition of states could ⁠try to enforce the treaty. The UN Security Council could pass a resolution opposing tolls.

Companies could redirect shipments away from the Strait of Hormuz, and have begun doing so. Countries could expand sanctions targeting financial transactions believed to benefit Iran's government, by sanctioning companies willing to pay tolls.