The political surprises emerging from Damascus are far greater than our ability to absorb or anticipate them. Every time we imagine we have seen the final surprise, it becomes clear that there is no end to the republic President Ahmad al-Sharaa is building over the remnants of Syria's past. Day after day, another political entity joins the parent state. And day after day, we see Syria's foreign minister meeting with an American minister, or even an Israeli one.
The lexicon of taboos and red lines that had prevailed since independence has disappeared. Damascus is making fundamental adjustments to its political discourse, and its tone has changed completely in its explanation of the national cause. For the first time since 1949, the presidential palace has raised portraits of a civilian man without medals, or the name of Palestine, or Hattin.
The road back is long and complicated. The precedents are numerous and bitter. Yet Ahmad al-Sharaa's performance has been calm, direct and free of the language of official communiques. This is a scene we have never witnessed in Syria before. We were always required to view Syria as the axis of everything, the foundation of everything. Even Palestine, as Hafez al-Assad insisted, had no existence of its own. It was merely part of southern Syria. That was why he retained control over the Palestinian decision and usurped Lebanon's sovereignty, turning it into a military outpost ruled by a Syrian officer under the slogan, "One people in two states."
Now Ahmad al-Sharaa says that Lebanon and Syria are two independent states, capable of the broadest exchanges. Add Iraq to the equation, and you have the Fertile Crescent. Yet since independence, the only thing one has sent to the other has been tanks.
Ahmad al-Sharaa is opening unfamiliar pages for Syria and its wider orbit. He has started where he should: with the language of inclusion and affinity, and by moving beyond the permanent volcano of absurdity and power struggles. Useful Syria is the Syria that brings its people back.
