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Syria Project

Our work on Syria sheds light on the ongoing struggle of Syrians to fulfill their desire for democratic self-governance as the United States and the international community grapple with the aftermath of a devastating civil war, millions of refugees across the Middle East and Europe, and ongoing security and political challenges spilling over Syria’s borders.


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Syria Strategy Project

The Atlantic Council, Middle East Institute, and European Institute of Peace collaborate with subject matter experts and policymakers in the US, Europe, and the Middle East to develop a holistic strategy to sustainably forge a pathway to resolving Syria’s crisis.

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Middle East Programs

Working with our allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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SyriaSource

Jan 30, 2019

Consequences of the HTS take-over in northwest Syria

By Phillip James Walker, Esq.

While the Trump administration’s flip-flops on Syria and the looming withdrawal of US personnel from the country's northeast have rightly drawn a great deal of public attention, important developments have simultaneously unfolded without much notice in the northwest. Specifically, while all eyes have been on the territories held by the Kurds and their allies to the east, the Salafist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militia has seized control of Idlib province and the adjacent opposition-held portions of western Aleppo and northern Hama, routing the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front (NLF).

Syria

IranSource

Jan 25, 2019

Israel and Iran Exchange Blows in Syria: A View From Israel

By Shemuel Meir

The January 20 Israeli attack on an Iranian weapons shipment delivery near the Damascus airport in Syria led to a quick and exceptional succession of events that could have easily brought both sides to the brink of war.  Iran reacted with a missile launch at the Golan Heights. Israel then responded with an attack on […]

Iran Israel

SyriaSource

Jan 23, 2019

Consequences of the US withdrawal from Syria: the French perspective

By Ambassador Michel Duclos

French authorities were undoubtedly upset, if not very surprised, by US President Donald Trump’s sudden announcement of a withdrawal from the northeast of Syria. On several occasions during his talks with President Trump, especially when he came to Washington for a state visit in April 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron was very insistent that the US and their allies should stay, ultimately he did not change the American president’s decision and campaign commitment to end America’s wars abroad.

Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 17, 2019

The influence of domestic politics on foreign policy in Syria

By Emily Burchfield

On January 13, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces attacked Iranian weapons warehouses in Damascus the day prior, confirming similar reports by Syrian state media. What is unusual about Netanyahu’s statement is not the content—indeed, Israeli officials previously acknowledged carrying out hundreds of strikes on thousands of Iranian targets in Syria—but the context. The announcement broke with a “policy of ambiguity” under which Israel refuses to claim responsibility immediately after a specific attack; the rationale being to safeguard against potential retaliation. 

Israel Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 16, 2019

Expert analysis on US soldiers killed in Manbij

By SyriaSource

This morning reports of four Americans killed in Manbij, Syria surfaced with the Islamic State (ISIS) claiming the attack which came in the form of a suicide explosive vest next to a US patrol. The attack killed two US soldiers, a civilian from the Defense Intelligence Agency, and a US contractor. Several civilians were also caught in the attack with estimates of thirteen to sixteen casualties in addition to the deaths of two local security officers. The attack occurred in the main market near a girls’ school and restaurant as US troops met up with the local Manbij Military Council (MMC). Comments and analysis from our experts are below.

Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 15, 2019

Can anything be salvaged?

By Frederic C. Hof

President Trump’s impulsive “out of Syria” tweet of December 19, 2018 may have sacrificed high value, low cost American leverage in eastern Syria for precisely nothing.  Russian, Iranian, and Assad regime alarm that the West would work with local Syrians in areas liberated from ISIS (ISIL, Daesh, Islamic State) to create the long-awaited governance alternative to Bashar al-Assad, family, and friends have all-but-evaporated. 

Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 11, 2019

Winter storm in Arsal, Lebanon devastates vulnerable Syrian refugee communities

By Mohammad Abdulssattar Ibrahim, Tom Rollins, and Madeline Edwards from Syria Direct

A winter storm currently sweeping across the region has hit Lebanon hard, leaving tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in the country without proper assistance and shelter. While flooding has inundated and destroyed informal tent settlements dotting the fields and countryside of the Beqaa Valley—a mostly flat, agricultural lowland with Lebanese mountains to the west and the Syrian-Lebanese border to the east—conditions have been particularly poor in northeastern Lebanon’s Arsal region.

Middle East Syria

In the News

Jan 7, 2019

Cohen in Newsweek: Trump’s Syria Withdrawal: Global Order is Costly. Global Chaos Would be Far Worse

By Ariel Cohen

Read the full article here.

Syria

SyriaSource

Jan 2, 2019

Slowing down the train

By Frederic C. Hof

One thing to be learned from the uproar following the recent out-of-Syria presidential tweet is that “ready, aim, fire” makes just as much sense in government as it does on the firing range. By most accounts, US President Donald Trump is now where he should have been two weeks ago: in the “ready” phase, consulting with his national security team on the implementation of a strategy aimed at killing ISIS (ISIL, Daesh, Islamic State) in Syria and keeping it dead by preventing the pseudo-caliphate’s chief recruiting officer—Bashar al-Assad—from taking over liberated eastern Syria.

Syria

In the News

Dec 27, 2018

Slavin Quoted in BuzzFeed on President Trump’s Announcement to Withdraw Troops from Syria

By Barbara Slavin

Read the full article here.

Syria

Experts