For fourteen years, the people of Syria waged a struggle to topple the criminal Bashar al-Assad, defeat Iran and its proxies (foremost among them Hezbollah), and break Russia’s link with Assad. They have been on the receiving end of Israeli strikes both before and after Assad’s fall.
The new Syrian administration led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa has not given Israel a pretext for these assaults. Seven hundred strikes have hit the country over his five-month tenure regardless; the gravest of these strikes hit a site near the palace where Sharaa resides.
The US and EU sanctions on Syria, which had originally been imposed to rescue them from Assad’s crimes, have caused immense suffering in Syria. Now, these sanctions are impeding the reconstruction of Syria after the war. How have Syrians reacted under Sharaa?
Did they roam the globe begging for support? No! Did they weep and complain? No! Did they give in to hysteria, deciding to confront Israel or retaliate to the provocations of Hezbollah and other actors in Lebanon or Iraq? Again, no!
Instead, Syrians are determined to behave sensibly, even as skeptics piled up and many were prepared to give Assad opportunity after opportunity despite his record of treating politics like a game of deception.
Sharaa understood that Saudi Arabia is the region’s gateway to the world and that proactive engagement with his neighbors is a necessity, not a luxury. He managed his country’s relationship with Türkiye carefully. While some said that he had limited options, he maintained his composure, avoided escalation in response to Israel’s attacks, and never forgot Syria’s realities.
He ignored provocations, avoided nationalist or Islamist bravado, and refused to inflame the passions of people with the kind of hollow rhetoric peddled by Assad, Hezbollah, and their backers. He candidly stressed that war-torn Syria needs reconstruction, insisting that he seeks partnership and investment, not hand-outs.
Accordingly, he prioritized lifting American and European sanctions and resetting Syrian-American relations. He succeeded, through Saudi mediation. President Donald Trump announced that sanctions would be lifted because Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked him to.
Today, reliable sources have reported that Syria and Israel are holding direct talks to curb Israeli attacks, which have already been scaled back since Trump met Sharaa in Riyadh, without any fanfare or propaganda.
The domestic and foreign spoilers notwithstanding, Sharaa has begun to put Syria’s house in order. The wheels of recovery have begun turning.
Here the reader may now be asking: “What about Lebanon?” That is precisely the point! Lebanon is in a hole, and it is still digging.
The Lebanese political class continues to favor “round-table compromises,” soliciting outside help and Arab engagement to help it succeed. Yet, it cannot decide whether arms should be monopolized by the state or if the state can be hijacked by those weapons.
President Mahmoud Abbas agrees that no Palestinian non-state actors can maintain their arms, but Hezbollah insists that its arsenal is above the authority of the state, ostensibly “for the sake of Palestine.” Lebanon claims to seek reconstruction, but drags its feet on imposing the state’s supremacy.
The comparison could go on and on. However, the question is simple: Does Lebanon want to build a state or merely maintain the remnants of a state? The answer will come from Lebanon. No one will squander time, effort, and money saving a country that will not save itself.
