With a history stretching back millennia, evident in the monuments and archaeological remains that dot its landscape, Syria has long had an underappreciated yet profound impact on so-called Western civilisation.
Sitting astride the crossroads of Greek, Roman, Christian, and Islamic faiths and cultures, Syria forms part of the bedrock of the Western experience. When US President Donald Trump or more recently US Special Envoy to Syria Ambassador Tom Barrack says that “we are not dictating… we are not nation-building,” it is partly humility in the face of Syria’s storied past and future potential.
Not that Syria, left to its own devices, is up to the challenge of reconstruction after more than a decade of devastating civil conflict. On the contrary, Syria needs help, and that need is urgent.
Following President Trump’s announcement in May of the lifting of crippling sanctions imposed during the regime of former Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, there is increased optimism in Syria of better days to come. As billboards in Damascus thanking the US president declare, “Syria Feels Hope Again.”
But, given the near collapse of the country’s economy and widespread infrastructural losses, the question is whether the benefits of sanctions relief and the resulting foreign investor interest in Syria will accrue quickly enough to stabilise a highly unstable environment. Syrians hope so, but the clock is ticking.
Were Syria fortunate enough to be free of external spoilers, among whom can still be counted Russia and Iran, the internal challenges alone to the country’s stability and recovery would be no less significant. In the south, the Druze community, for one, has legitimate reasons to be wary of Damascus with former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) at its head. The same can be said for other minority groups in the country, including former president Al-Assad’s own Alawite confession, not to mention the Syrian Kurds.
The killing of scores or Alawis and Druze by HTS-allied forces in the first half of 2025 belies assurances to the West from the new government, particularly its promises to respect and protect the country’s minorities. That the killings may have been the work of rogue or unreformed extremists within the ranks of HTS allies only highlights Syria’s fragility and the urgency of action.
While the wellbeing of Syria’s minorities should be of concern to all, and not just in the West, any potential international response must be carefully calibrated against the entirety of Syria’s myriad challenges. Christians, Alawites, Kurds, Druze, Yazidis, Ismailis, and even the country’s few remaining Jews are an intrinsic part of the fabric of the country; it is the combination of all, including the majority Sunni population, that is the Syrian mosaic.
As the conflict that left over a half million dead, tens of thousands injured, thousands disappeared, and millions displaced left no community untouched, all communities must recover equally, if Syria is to recover fully. As the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II told me at his residence in the Old City of Damascus last month, “we [Christians] do not want to be treated like pieces in a museum, we want to be equal under one law for all Syrians.”
His Holiness understands better than some outside observers that prospects for the country’s minorities are inextricably linked to the improvement of conditions for all war-weary Syrians, not just a few.
Ironically for a country with such ancient lineage (Damascus is said to have been first settled in the 3rd-4th Millenium BCE), one commodity in desperate need in mid-2025 is time. Lacking the resources and capabilities to buy itself more, the country’s new government needs the West’s assistance, assuming the former’s success remains a priority. With estimates for Syria’s recovery standing at $250 to $400 billion, if not higher, reconstruction will not only take money but also decades, time the new government does not have.
To avoid Syria being dragged back into the vortex of violence and to buy much needed time for the trickle-down effects of sanctions relief and foreign investment to be felt, it is critical that vulnerable communities see the new government at least attempting to address their legitimate needs and grievances; no miracles are expected.
Given the resource and capacity deficits faced by Damascus at present, this is where Western encouragement, monitoring, and, most importantly, assistance, both technical and material is much needed – assistance that Syria’s regional benefactors either do not have to offer or in which they have little interest providing, as they look for more direct returns on any investments.
Offering such assistance to stabilise Syria is not nation-building. It is an investment in regional stability that will return dividends for years to come. It could also be viewed as a form of appreciation for the land of Syria’s historic contributions to humanity; the West returning the favour to the East.
The writer is a non-resident fellow with the University of Central Florida’s Global Perspectives and International Initiatives. A former director of the US Agency for International Development’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI), he visited Damascus in May 2025.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 3 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
Short link: