Write an article about Between fear and hope in Syria .Organize the content with appropriate headings and subheadings (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6), Retain any existing tags from
Much like Germans during the hyperinflation that plagued the Weimar Republic a century ago, Syrians today rarely leave home without carrying thick stacks of cash. As sectarian tensions – long repressed in a country ruled by the Alawite minority until recently – continue to fuel instability, ATMs cap withdrawals at around US$40 per week, if they are working at all.
Six months after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad, which ended the country’s brutal 13-year civil war, Syrians are still struggling just to make it through each day. Despite the overwhelming hardships, many cling to the hope that a measure of normalcy may soon be within reach. But every week brings hardships that belie such optimism. Most recently, by using Syrian airspace to attack Iran, Israel places Syrians in a quandary they would rather avoid.
In a culture where hospitality is sacred, most Syrians can no longer afford to offer visitors more than a single cup of coffee. The country is grappling with a severe drought – worse than the one often linked to the 2011 uprising – that now threatens 75% of wheat crops, undermining access to bread and exacerbating food insecurity.
Few Syrians long for Assad’s return, but many are skeptical of his successor, Ahmed al-Sharaa. A former al-Qaeda commander, Sharaa ruled the rural province of Idlib for several years, enforcing a strict Sunni Islamist code.
Although he has since moderated his stance, he remains as much an enigma as the soft-spoken, Western-educated Assad, who promised reform only to become one of the worst war criminals since World War II.
Like his predecessor, Sharaa governs by decree, with little to no transparency, causing many Syrians to fear they have merely exchanged one autocrat for another, replacing a secular dictatorship with an Islamist one.
Moreover, Sharaa’s ideological leanings and economic priorities remain unclear. His detractors deride him for his al-Qaeda past, while those who fought alongside him in Iraq have questioned his jihadist zeal.
Regardless of Sharaa’s agenda, sectarian divisions continue to imperil meaningful government action, as the Druze in the south and the Alawis in Assad’s longtime stronghold along Syria’s coast refuse to accept the new government.
“They are hypocrites,” Druze spiritual leader Hikmat al-Hijri told me, describing Sharaa and his allies with a loaded religious term for those who resisted the Prophet Muhammad’s message.
When asked whether he supports a federal state, al-Hijri replied that he opposes centralism. In reality, what he and his co-religionists want is a weak central government incapable of asserting control over their remote province.
The Alawis face a different problem. As Syria’s former ruling minority, they share little with the Sunni elite toppled by the US in neighbouring Iraq. Given that Sunnis are the predominant sect across the broader Arab and Islamic world, Iraq’s Sunni minority believed it was entitled to rule over the country’s Shia majority and clamoured for the restoration of its rightful status.
Syrian Alawis cannot harbour similar aspirations. Still, this hasn’t stopped some from attempting to launch an insurgency, much like Iraq’s Sunnis did after the US invasion in 2003. The problem is not only that the Alawi minority is much smaller than the Sunni minority in Iraq, but also that it has historically been too fragmented to present a united front.
Recent clashes between the government and these minority groups have rattled Syria, eroding public confidence in the new regime. But despite sectarian conflict, Sharaa enjoys the support of most Arab Sunnis.
Devout Muslims back him because the collapse of the atheist Ba’ath party has allowed religion to re-enter public life. Others credit him with lowering prices, though there is little evidence he can move markets like, say, US president Donald Trump.
Anti-Americanism and virulent anti-Israelism were central pillars of the Assad dynasty’s Ba’thist creed. Assad and his father adopted this militant dogma to distract from their domestic failures and minority rule.
Under the Assads, Syria would have been the first to denounce Israel’s strikes against Iran and offer support – both vocal and material – to any party willing to tangle with the Israelis.
Today, Syrians have become insular, more concerned with national healing than with regional events. Though Israel has increasingly encroached on Syrian territory since Assad’s fall, many Syrians are content to have normal neighbourly relations.
In a society plagued by scarcity, the one thing Syrians are not short of is hope – a free commodity that, unlike most goods, is neither expensive nor subject to international sanctions. “Without hope, we cannot live,” a middle-aged man told me as he contemplated whether to spend his meagre savings on new sneakers for his children or repair his apartment’s faulty wiring.
Syrians face an abundance of such tradeoffs. What they lack are sudden strokes of luck like Trump’s unexpected decision to loosen US sanctions, which has led many Syrians to expect more such flukes.
“It is Allah who planted the seed of Syria in Trump’s heart,” a man told me confidently while holding a satchel of decomposing tomatoes – bought at a discount – in his calloused hands.
According to US special envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, the administration’s decision to lift certain sanctions was intended to “flood the zone with hope”. But what Syrians are hoping for is that Americans will flood their country with capital and investment, sparing them the need to choose between existential needs and basic comforts, and allowing them, at the very least, to buy produce that is ripe rather than rotting.
Barak Barfi is a former research fellow at New America and a former visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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