Syria
Name
| Official name | Syrian Arab Republic — al-Jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah as-Suriyah (Arabic); Syria (Suriya) the short form; SYR; the name of 1961 kept by the Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025 and by the transitional state |
|---|---|
| Former names | The Arab Kingdom of Syria (8 March – 24 July 1920; Faisal I), the Syrian Federation and the Syrian Republic of the French Mandate (1922–46; the states of Damascus, Aleppo, the Alawites and the Druze of 1920–36), the First Syrian Republic (1946–58), the United Arab Republic with Egypt (1958–61), the Syrian Arab Republic of the Ba'ath (1963–2024); Bilad al-Sham and the Ottoman vilayets of Damascus, Aleppo and Beirut (1516–1918); Syria Palaestina and Coele-Syria to Rome; Aram to the Bible; "Greater Syria" of the nationalists' map |
| Demonym | Syrian (Suri, Suriya); the Damascenes (Shami), the Aleppines (Halabi), the Homsis of the jokes; the Levantines (Shawam) of the diaspora; the "Syro-Lebanese" of the Americas |
| Meaning of the name | Greek — Herodotus' "Syria" (5th century BC) most likely a clipping of "Assyria" (Aššur), the name the Greeks gave the Aramaean lands west of the Euphrates, taken by Rome for its province and revived by the Arabs of the 19th century (Suriya) for the whole Levant; "al-Sham," the Arabic name of the land and of Damascus, "the left" or the north from the Hejaz (the Yemen the right); "Damascus" from the Aramaic Darmeseq of the tablets of Ebla and Mari; "Aleppo" (Halab) from the Amorite of the third millennium — "he milked," says the legend of Abraham's sheep |
| Motto | None by law — the Ba'ath's "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" (Wahda, Hurriya, Ishtirakiya) of 1963–2024 gone with the party; "Syria for all Syrians" the transition's line by the reports; the Ba'athist "eternal message" of the old constitution's Arab nation struck |
Quick facts
| Capital | Damascus (Dimashq, al-Sham) — the seat of the state since the Mandate and of the Umayyad caliphs (661–750); about 2.5 million in the city's governorate and about 5 million with the Rif Dimashq by the estimates (no census since 2004); the People's Palace on Mount Qasioun (the presidency since 1990), the People's Assembly on the Salhiyah, the ministries of the Mezzeh and the Umayyad Square; the Old City a World Heritage site (1979; in danger since 2013), the Umayyad Mosque, the Souq al-Hamidiyah, the Azm Palace, the Hejaz station; the Ghouta orchards and the Barada; 690 m above the sea, 80 km from it |
|---|---|
| Largest cities | Aleppo (about 2 million by the estimates; the largest before 2011 with 2.5 million; the Citadel, the souks and the industry, the battle of 2012–16 and the earthquake of 2023), Damascus (about 2.5 million; 5 million with the Rif), Homs (about 800,000; the third, the old center gutted), Hama (about 700,000; the norias), Latakia (about 500,000; the port, the Alawite coast), Deir ez-Zor (the Euphrates and the oil), Raqqa (ISIS's capital of 2014–17; rebuilt in part), al-Hasakah and Qamishli (the Kurdish northeast), Tartus (the port and the Russian base), Idlib (the HTS capital of 2017–24), Daraa (the uprising's cradle), al-Suwayda (the Druze mountain), Douma and Darayya of the Ghouta, Manbij, al-Bab, Afrin, Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), al-Bukamal, Palmyra (Tadmur), Salamiyah — all estimates; the census of 2004 (17.9 million) the last, a new one promised |
| Official language | Arabic by the Constitutional Declaration (Article 4) — the Syrian dialect of the Levantine family in the street (Damascene, Aleppine, the Bedouin of the Badiya), Modern Standard in the state and the press; Kurdish (Kurmanji) recognized as a national language and Nowruz a holiday by the presidential decree of 16 January 2026, Kurdish lessons in the public and private schools approved 28 August 2026; Western Neo-Aramaic at Maaloula, Jubb'adin and Bakh'a, Syriac in the churches and among the Assyrians of the Khabur, Armenian at Aleppo, Turkish among the Turkmen, Circassian at Quneitra, Chechen, Greek, Domari; English and French of the schools |
| Currency | Syrian pound (ISO code SYP; LS, £S; the lira), of 100 piastres — the new pound of 3 January 2026 at 100 old to 1 (the notes of 10 to 500 first, then 1, 5 and 1,000; the old taken in to 30 July 2026): 111 to the U.S. dollar at the launch of 1 January 2026, about 120 in September 2026 by the market's counts (115 pounds to US$0.94 in the government's diesel arithmetic of 18 September); the old pound 47 to the dollar in 2011, about 15,000 in 2024; the Central Bank of Syria (1953), Governor Abdulkader Husrieh since April 2025; the dollar legal again since 2025; the gold of about 26 metric tons in the vaults by the reports of December 2024 |
| Time zone | Arabia Standard Time, UTC+3, all year — the summer time abolished in October 2022 (UTC+2 with daylight saving before) |
| Calling code | +963 |
| Internet domain | .sy (since 1996; the Syrian Telecom's registry) and the Arabic .سوريا (2011) |
| ISO 3166 codes | SY · SYR · 760 |
| Vehicle registration code | SYR |
| Driving side | Right |
| Electricity | 220 V, 50 Hz; plug types C, E and L |
| Independence | 17 April 1946 — Evacuation Day (Eid al-Jalaa), when the last French troops sailed from Latakia, the end of the Mandate of 1920–46 (independence recognized in law from 1 January 1944; the UN Charter signed 26 June 1945 as a founder; the Arab League founded 22 March 1945 with Syria); the Kingdom of Syria of 8 March 1920 ended at Maysalun (24 July 1920); the Ottoman rule of 1516–1918 ended by Faisal's entry into Damascus on 1 October 1918; the fall of the Assads on 8 December 2024 the transition's "Liberation Day" |
| National days | Independence (Evacuation) Day, 17 April; Revolution Day, 18 March (the day of Daraa's first dead of 2011; new in 2025); Liberation Day, 8 December (the fall of Assad; new in 2025); Martyrs' Day, 6 May (the hangings of 1916); the holidays of the transition's calendar — New Year (1 January), Mother's Day and Nowruz (21 March), Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, the Islamic New Year, the Prophet's Birthday, Labor Day (1 May), Easter by both calendars, Christmas (25 December); the Ba'ath's 8 March (the coup of 1963) and the Corrective Movement's 16 November struck from the calendar by the reports |
| Constitution | The Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025 (53 articles; signed by the President after the drafting committee's work) — a transition of five years to 2030: the executive in the President of the Republic, who appoints the ministers (no prime minister) and a third of the legislature, the People's Assembly of 210 (two-thirds by electoral colleges, a third appointed) for 30 months, a Supreme Constitutional Court, the judiciary's independence, Islamic jurisprudence "the main source of legislation," the President a Muslim, Arabic the official language, the freedoms of opinion, belief and the press and the women's rights written, a permanent constitution to be drafted and voted before the end; the constitution of 2012 (and 1973) of the Assad state dissolved by the Victory Conference of 29 January 2025; the critics' case (the Kurds, the Druze, the civil society, the UN's envoy: too much in one man's hands, too long, too few checks) and the government's (a state with no census, no voter roll and half its people displaced needs one hand and time) — both stated (LAW 2) |
| Population | About 25.6 million in 2025 by the World Bank's count (26.0 million by the UN's estimate; about 24 million by the Factbook's — all stated; the 56th of the world) — 17.9 million at the last census (2004), about 21 million in 2010; more than 13 million uprooted by the war of 2011–24 (6.8 million refugees abroad at the peak, 7 million displaced within); the returns since 8 December 2024 — 1.3 million refugees by the UNHCR's count of 22 December 2025, 1.5 million by the IMF's of mid-2026, nearly 2 million of the displaced home by July 2026, 3.5 million in all by the President's count to the UN of 23 September 2026; about 4 million still abroad by the counts (Turkey about 2.4 million, Lebanon, Jordan, Germany about a million, Iraq, Egypt); the median age about 24, a third under 15; Damascus, Aleppo, Rif Dimashq, Homs, Hama, Idlib, Latakia and Hasakah the fullest governorates |
| Area | 185,180 km² (71,500 sq mi) by the UN's count — 187,437 km² by the Factbook's with the Israeli-held Golan Heights (about 1,200 km²; occupied 1967, annexed 1981, recognized as Israel's by the United States in 2019 and Colombia in 2026 only) — the 87th of the world; land about 99%, the water of Lake Assad and the rivers about 1%; the borders 2,253 km (Turkey 822, Iraq 605, Lebanon 375, Jordan 375, Israel 76) by the Geography count and 2,363 by the Factbook's (Turkey 899, Iraq 599, Lebanon 403, Jordan 379, Israel 83) — both stated; the coast 193 km; the Badiya more than half the land; about 500 km from the sea to the Iraqi border, 700 km from the Turkish border to the Jordanian |
Flag & national symbols
| National flag | A horizontal tricolor of green, white and black with three red five-pointed stars across the white — the "independence flag" of the Republic of 1932 (adopted 14 May 1930 under the Mandate by the committee of Ibrahim Hananu; the flag of 1946–58 and 1961–63), raised by the uprising of 2011 as the flag of the revolution, hoisted over the ministries and the embassies from 8 December 2024 and written into the Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025 as the flag of the state (2:3): the green of the Rashidun, the white of the Umayyads, the black of the Abbasids in the reading of the Arab Revolt's colors, the three stars once for the three districts of 1932 (Aleppo, Damascus, Deir ez-Zor) and read since for the three regions of the reunited state; the red-white-black flag of the Ba'ath republic with its two green stars (1980–2024; the United Arab Republic's of 1958) lowered with Assad. Flag of Syria |
|---|---|
| Coat of arms | The golden eagle of 3 July 2025 — inspired by the eagle motifs of Palmyra, three stars above its head, 14 feathers in the wings for the 14 governorates and five in the tail for the five regions (north, south, east, west and center), unveiled by the presidency at the "Syrian visual identity" launch in Damascus with the President; the Hawk of Quraish of the Ba'ath state (the shield of the two-star flag; 1980–2024) retired; on the passports and the state's papers, the ministries and the army's badges |
| National anthem | "Humat al-Diyar" ("Guardians of the Homeland") — the words of Khalil Mardam Bey, the music of Mohammed Flayfel and his brother Ahmad, adopted in 1938 under the Mandate (1936 by some counts) and the anthem of the independent state from 1946, set aside for the United Arab Republic's years (1958–61) and restored; kept by the transition of 2024–25, sung at the Victory Conference and the Assembly's first session |
| National motto | None by law — "Unity, Freedom, Socialism" of the Ba'ath struck in 2024; "Syria for all Syrians" the transition's line by the reports; "Suriya al-Assad" ("Assad's Syria") of the old billboards torn down |
| National colors | Green, white, black and red — the pan-Arab colors of the Arab Revolt's flag of 1916 (the Hejaz flag of Sharif Hussein: the black of the Abbasids, the white of the Umayyads, the green of the Fatimids or the Rashidun, the red of the Hashemites), on the independence flag of 1932 and the state's of 2025; the football team in red and white (the "Qasioun Eagles") |
| National animal | The eagle of the arms by custom (the golden eagle of the 2025 emblem; the Hawk of Quraish before it); the Arabian oryx and the goitered gazelle of the Talila reserve of Palmyra, the Syrian brown bear all but gone, the striped hyena, the northern bald ibis whose last colony was found at Palmyra in 2002 and lost by 2015, the golden hamster of Aleppo (the world's pet hamsters descend from a litter caught near the city in 1930), the Damascus goat, the Arabian horse of the Bedouin, the Awassi sheep of the Badiya |
| National flower and tree | The Damask rose (Rosa damascena) by custom — the rose of al-Mrah in the Qalamoun above Damascus, its harvest and its water and jam on UNESCO's Intangible Heritage list (2019); jasmine the flower of Damascus, "the city of jasmine"; the olive tree of Idlib, Afrin and the coast by custom (about 100 million trees by the counts), the pistachio of Aleppo, the cedar and fir of Slinfah's reserve on the coastal range, the palms of the Euphrates |
| National dish | Kibbeh by custom — the bulgur-and-meat shells of Aleppo's dozens of kinds, with the mezze of hummus, muhammara, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and fattoush, the kebab halabi and the shish tawook, the shawarma, the yabrak stuffed vine leaves, the fatteh, the Aleppo pepper and the cherry kebab; the Damascus ice cream of Bakdash (1885) in the Hamidiyah souk, the baklava and the ma'amoul of the feasts, the Aleppo pistachios, the Damask rose jam, the maté of the Druze and the Alawite coast (from the emigrants of Argentina), the arak, the coffee with cardamom, the Aleppo laurel soap on the table's edge |
| National sport | Football by custom — the national team (the "Qasioun Eagles"): the World Cup never reached (the play-off of October 2017 lost to Australia the closest; the qualifying of 2026 ended in Asia's second round), the Asian Cup of 2023's round of 16 the best (the qualifying of 2025–26 for the Asian Cup of 2027 in Saudi Arabia); the league of Al-Karamah of Homs, Al-Ittihad of Aleppo, Al-Jaish and Al-Wahda of Damascus, Tishreen of Latakia; Omar Al Somah and Omar Khribin abroad; basketball (Al-Jalaa of Aleppo); the Olympic medals ×4 — Ghada Shouaa's heptathlon gold of Atlanta 1996, Joseph Atiyeh's wrestling silver of 1984, Naser Al-Shami's boxing bronze of 2004, Man Asaad's weightlifting bronze of Tokyo 2021; Hend Zaza the youngest Olympian of Tokyo at 12; the Mediterranean Games hosted at Latakia (1987); the Abbasiyyin stadium of Damascus and the Aleppo International |
| Heritage listings | UNESCO World Heritage ×6, all six on the List in Danger since 2013 — the Ancient City of Damascus (1979), the Ancient City of Bosra (1980), the Site of Palmyra (1980), the Ancient City of Aleppo (1986), Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din (2006) and the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria (2011); Intangible Heritage — the shadow play of Damascus (2018; urgent safeguarding), the Damascene rose of al-Mrah (2019), the al-Qudoud al-Halabiya songs of Aleppo (2021), Arabic calligraphy (2021; with 15 other states), the glassblowing (2023; urgent); the Lajat biosphere reserve (2009); Sabkhat al-Jabbul the one Ramsar site (1998); the tentative list of Ugarit, Ebla, Mari, Dura-Europos, Apamea, the norias of Hama, Maaloula and Qasr al-Hayr |
| Symbol status | The flag by the Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025; the emblem by the presidency's launch of 3 July 2025; the anthem by the Mandate-era adoption of 1938 and custom; the holidays by the government's calendar of 2025 (Revolution Day and Liberation Day new); no motto, animal, flower, dish or sport by law — all by custom; the Ba'ath's symbols of 1963–2024 struck by the Victory Conference of 29 January 2025 |
Geography
| Location | Western Asia, the northern Levant on the eastern Mediterranean, between 32° and 37° N and 35° and 42° E — Turkey to the north along the Baghdad railway's line, Iraq to the east and southeast across the Badiya, Jordan to the south across the Hauran, Israel (the Golan) to the southwest, Lebanon to the west behind the Anti-Lebanon and Hermon; the Euphrates in from Turkey at Jarabulus and out to Iraq at al-Bukamal; Damascus 80 km from the sea, Aleppo 50 km from Turkey; the Tigris on the northeastern corner at Ain Diwar; the Sanjak of Alexandretta (Hatay) lost to Turkey in 1939 still on the old maps |
|---|---|
| Land borders | About 2,250 km by the Geography count (2,253; 2,363 by the Factbook's — both stated) — Turkey 822 km (899; the line of the Baghdad railway of 1918's armistice and the Turkish wall of 2015–18; the crossings of Bab al-Hawa, Bab al-Salam, Kasab, Tell Abyad, Ras al-Ayn and Nusaybin), Iraq 605 (599; Sykes-Picot's line of 1916 that the caliphate of 2014–17 bulldozed; al-Bukamal/al-Qaim and Yaarubiyah, reopened 20 April 2026 after 15 years), Lebanon 375 (403; the Masnaa of the Damascus–Beirut road, the Arida of the coast, the smugglers' Qalamoun), Jordan 375 (379; Nasib/Jaber, the trade's gate, and the captagon war of the Jordanian strikes of 2026), Israel 76 (83; the ceasefire line of 1974 and the UNDOF zone Israel entered on 8 December 2024, the buffer zone and Hermon held since) |
| Coastline | 193 km on the Mediterranean from Ras al-Basit at the Turkish border to the Nahr al-Kabir at Lebanon's — Latakia (the largest port; CMA CGM's terminal since 2025), Tartus (the second; DP World's concession of 13 July 2025, the Russian naval facility of 1971), Baniyas (the refinery and the oil terminal), Jableh; Arwad, the one inhabited island, a Phoenician city and a Crusader last stand (1302); Ugarit at Ras Shamra north of Latakia; the coastal range behind; the Alawite heartland of the coast, the beaches of Latakia's Blue Beach and Wadi Qandil; the sea boundary with Cyprus and Lebanon undrawn; the merchant fleet small |
| Highest point | Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Shaykh), 2,814 m (9,232 ft), on the Lebanese border at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon — the highest of the Levant; the summit ridge held by Israel since 8 December 2024 beyond its Golan positions of 1967–74; the coastal range's Nabi Yunis 1,562 m, the Anti-Lebanon's Talat Musa 2,629 m on the border, Jabal al-Druze's Tell Qeni 1,803 m, Mount Qasioun 1,151 m over Damascus, the Kurd Mountain (Kurd Dagh) of Afrin, Jabal Abdulaziz and Jabal Sinjar's western end in the Jazira, Jabal Bishri and the Palmyrene ranges of the desert; the ski slopes of Hermon on the Israeli side |
| Lowest point | About −200 m at the shore of Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee) on the Golan by the Factbook's count — Syrian land under Israel's hand since 1967; the Yarmouk gorge beside it; the Mediterranean shore 0 m; the Euphrates at al-Bukamal about 170 m; the Ghab depression of the Orontes about 170 m; Damascus 690 m, Aleppo 380 m, Homs 500 m, Palmyra 400 m, Deir ez-Zor 210 m |
| Mean elevation | About 514 m by the Factbook's count — the coastal plain (0–100 m), the coastal range (to 1,562 m), the Orontes rift and the Ghab (170–300 m), the Damascus and Aleppo plateaus (400–700 m), the Hauran and the Golan's basalt (500–1,000 m), the Jazira (300–500 m), the Euphrates trough (170–350 m) and the Badiya, the Syrian Desert of the center and east, 55% of the land at 400–800 m |
| Rivers | The Euphrates (al-Furat; about 600 km of its 2,800 in Syria, from Jarabulus to al-Bukamal; the Tabqa Dam of 1973 and Lake Assad, the Tishrin and Baath dams; four-fifths of the country's water by the counts; Turkey's dams upstream and the flow of 500 m³/s promised by the protocol of 1987, the low water of 2021–25 the quarrel), its tributaries the Balikh (Raqqa) and the Khabur (Hasakah; the Assyrians' villages); the Tigris on the northeastern corner; the Orontes (al-Asi, "the rebel," flowing north from Lebanon through Homs, Hama's norias and the Ghab to Turkey's Antioch); the Barada of Damascus and its Ghouta (the Fijeh spring); the Yarmouk of the south to the Jordan; the Afrin, the Quweiq of Aleppo (dry), the Nahr al-Kabir and the Sinn of the coast; the drought of 2025 the worst in 60 years by the FAO's count |
| Lakes | Lake Assad (Buhayrat al-Asad; about 610 km², 80 km long) behind the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates (1968–73), the largest, with Lake Tishrin and Lake al-Baath along the river; Lake Qattinah of Homs behind the oldest working dam of the world by the tradition (rebuilt 1938); Lake Jabbul (Sabkhat al-Jabbul) the salt lake east of Aleppo, the Ramsar site of the flamingos (1998); Lake Khatuniyah of the Jazira; the Muzayrib of the Hauran; the Rastan and Zeyzoun reservoirs of the Orontes; the Ghab marsh drained in the 1950s; the 17 April Dam of Afrin; the shore of Lake Tiberias lost with the Golan (1967); the Zarzar of Damascus |
| Terrain | Five lands from the sea to the desert — the coastal plain (the Sahel of Latakia and Tartus); the coastal range (Jabal al-Nusayriyah) and the Anti-Lebanon with Hermon; the Orontes rift between them (the Ghab, the Homs Gap where Krak des Chevaliers stands); the interior plateau of the Ghouta oasis, the Hauran's basalt and the Aleppo plain, with the volcanic Jabal al-Druze and the Lajat's lava field; the Jazira of the northeast ("the island" between the Euphrates and the Tigris; the wheat and the oil of Hasakah); and the Badiya, the Syrian Desert of Palmyra and the steppe of the Bedouin, more than half the land; the limestone massif of the Dead Cities, the Euphrates valley's ribbon of green; a quarter arable, the rest pasture and desert |
| Climate | Mediterranean on the coast (Latakia about 8°C in January and 30°C in August; 750–1,200 mm of rain on the coastal range), semi-arid on the plateau (Damascus about 3°C to 36°C; under 200 mm; Aleppo about 330 mm), desert in the east (Deir ez-Zor above 45°C in summer, under 100 mm; Palmyra), the snows of Hermon and the coastal range in winter (Bloudan and Zabadani the resorts), the rain from November to March, the khamsin and the dust storms of spring and summer (the great storm of September 2015); the drought of 2006–10 that emptied the villages before the uprising and the drought of 2025, the worst in 60 years by the FAO's count (the wheat harvest a fraction) |
| Natural hazards | Earthquakes on the Dead Sea fault of the west — Antioch (526), Aleppo (1138; among the deadliest ever by the medieval counts), Damascus (1759), the Turkey–Syria earthquake of 6 February 2023 (magnitude 7.8; about 6,000 dead in Syria in Aleppo, Idlib, Latakia and Hama, about 59,000 in all with Turkey); the dust and sandstorms; the droughts (2006–10, 2021–25); the wildfires of the coast (the Latakia fires of July 2025, about 16,000 hectares in ten days, the worst in decades); the Euphrates's low water; the war's leftovers — the mines and the unexploded shells that kill hundreds a year (the Abu Habbah mine of 21 May 2026; the Idlib depot blast of 9 September 2026, at least 14 dead; the Deir ez-Zor military site blast of 19 September, 11 dead; the al-Eiss depot of 21 September); the bus crash of 25 July 2026 (35 dead on the Deir ez-Zor road); the bombings of Damascus (2 July 2026, nine dead) |
| Natural resources | Oil (the Jazira and the Euphrates — al-Omar the largest field, the Tanak, the Rmeilan and Suwaydiyah of Hasakah; about 380,000 barrels a day in 2010 by the counts (353,000 in 2011), about 24,000 by 2018, some 40,000 in the SDF's years; back in the state's hands since January 2026; 2.5 billion barrels of reserves by the old counts; the offshore blocks to Chevron and Qatar's Power International with the Syrian Petroleum Company, 4 February 2026), gas (the Palmyra fields of Shaer, Jazal and Hayan, the Conoco plant of Deir ez-Zor, the Jabsah plant), phosphates (Khneifis and al-Sharqiyah near Palmyra; among the world's largest reserves by the counts; Russia's Stroytransgaz concession of 2018), the wheat and cotton of the Jazira and the Euphrates, the olives, hydropower of the Euphrates dams, the salt of Jabbul, marble, gypsum, chrome, manganese, asphalt, iron ore, the Aleppo laurel; the water the scarcest of all |
| Land use | Agricultural about 76% by the Factbook's count (arable about 25%, permanent crops about 6%, pasture about 44% — the Badiya's steppe), forest about 3% (the coastal range; the fires of 2025), the rest desert, towns and rock; the irrigated 1.4 million ha of the Euphrates, the Khabur, the Ghab and the wells (the aquifers falling), the wheat of the Jazira and the Hauran, the cotton of Raqqa, the olives of Idlib and Afrin, the pistachios of Aleppo, the citrus and the tobacco of the coast, the Ghouta's orchards paved by the war; the land mines in the fields; the Law 10 of 2018 on property to be undone; the drought of 2025 and the 14 million food insecure by the WFP's count |
| National parks | Few by law and fewer by the war — the Lajat biosphere reserve of the Hauran's lava field (UNESCO 2009), the Frunluq forest reserve of the coast (1993; the first), the Slinfah cedar and fir reserve (al-Shouh), the Abu Qubays, the Jabal Abdulaziz reserve of the Jazira, the Talila reserve of Palmyra (1992; the Arabian oryx and the gazelle reintroduced), the Sabkhat al-Jabbul Ramsar site (1998), the Palmyra bald ibis site of 2002 (the colony gone by 2015); about 25 protected areas on paper by the counts; the wolves and the hyenas of the Badiya, the flamingos of Jabbul |
| UNESCO World Heritage | Six sites, all on the List in Danger since 20 June 2013 — the Ancient City of Damascus (1979; the Umayyad Mosque of 705–15, the Straight Street, the Azm Palace, the citadel of Saladin), the Ancient City of Bosra (1980; the Roman theater of black basalt of the 2nd century, the Nabataean gate, the Omari mosque), the Site of Palmyra (1980; Zenobia's caravan city — the Temple of Bel of 32 blown up by ISIS on 30 August 2015 with the Baalshamin temple and the Arch of Triumph, the archaeologist Khaled al-Asaad beheaded 18 August 2015; the restoration begun), the Ancient City of Aleppo (1986; the Citadel, the Great Mosque's minaret of 1090 felled in 2013, the souks burned in 2012), Crac des Chevaliers and Qal'at Salah El-Din (2006; the Hospitallers' castle of the Homs Gap of 1142–1271 and Saladin's castle above Latakia), the Ancient Villages of Northern Syria (2011; the 40 "Dead Cities" of the limestone massif — Serjilla, al-Bara, the church of St. Simeon Stylites of 475) |
| Administrative divisions | 14 governorates (muhafazat) — Damascus (the city), Rif Dimashq, Quneitra, Daraa, al-Suwayda, Homs, Hama, Tartus, Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor and al-Hasakah — in about 65 districts and 280 subdistricts, the governors the President's appointees; the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of the northeast (2014–26) folded into the state by the agreement of 30 January 2026 (the "completion" declared 21 August 2026); al-Suwayda under the Druze National Guard's Administrative Council of Jabal Bashan (April 2026) outside the state's full hand; the Golan's Quneitra under Israel's occupation in part and the buffer zone since December 2024; the Turkish-run north of 2016–24 (Afrin, al-Bab, Jarabulus, Tell Abyad, Ras al-Ayn) and HTS's Idlib of 2017–24 folded in; the municipal elections promised |
People
| Population | About 25.6 million (2025) by the World Bank, 26.0 million by the UN's estimate, about 24 million by the Factbook's — all stated, the census of 2004 (17.9 million) the last and a new one promised; about 21 million in 2010, then the war's flight of 13 million — 6.8 million refugees abroad at the peak of 2016–24 and 7 million displaced within — and the returns of 2025–26 (1.3 million refugees by the UNHCR's count of December 2025, 1.5 million by the IMF's of mid-2026, nearly 2 million of the displaced by July 2026, 3.5 million in all by the President's count of 23 September 2026); about 4 million still abroad by the counts; the Palestinians of the camps (about 500,000; Yarmouk) and the Iraqis of 2003; the war's dead about 600,000 by the SOHR's count (306,887 civilians of 2011–21 by the UN's); women about half, the under-15s a third, the over-65s a twentieth |
|---|---|
| Population density | About 118 to the km² by the UN's count (about 140 by the Factbook's) — the west crowded (Damascus and its Rif, the Ghouta, Aleppo's plain, the Orontes valley, the coast at 300 and more), the Badiya of Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Homs's east all but empty, the Jazira's farms in between; three in five in the towns; the camps of Idlib (2 million in the tents of 2020–24) and the northeast emptying home |
| Population growth | About 2% a year by the estimates with the returns — the births about 500,000 a year (the fertility rate about 2.7), the deaths about 100,000, the net inflow of the returns of 2025–26 (a million refugees expected home in 2026 by the UNHCR); the war's dead about 600,000 by the SOHR's count; the UN's estimate up from 21 million in 2010 to 26 million by births despite the flight; the drought of 2025 and the fuel prices the push the other way |
| Median age | About 24 years by the UN's estimate — the under-15s about 33%, the over-65s about 5%; the retirement age 60 by the Assad-era law (65 for some); the lost decade — 2.4 million children out of school by UNICEF's count of 2023, a third of the schools damaged; the youth unemployment about a third; the young men of the diaspora |
| Life expectancy | 72.1 years (2023) by the World Bank's count (about 70 by the UN's estimate for the war's years; about 74 in 2010 by the old counts — both stated) — the health system broken by the war (half the hospitals damaged or shut, the doctors emigrated, the cholera of 2022, the earthquake of 2023), the WHO and the NGOs' return of 2025; infant mortality about 17 per 1,000 by the estimates; the university hospitals of Damascus (al-Mouwasat, al-Assad renamed) and Aleppo; the field hospitals of Idlib's years; the medicines of the Aleppo and Damascus plants that once made 90% of the country's; the Ministry of Health of Musaab Nazzal al-Ali |
| Fertility rate | About 2.7 children per woman by the UN's and the Factbook's estimates (about 3 in 2010, about 7.5 in 1960) — the births about 500,000 a year by the estimates; the marriages of the camps; the households of five and six; the mothers' age at first birth about 24 |
| Urban population | About 57% by the UN's count (2025) — Damascus and its Rif (about 5 million by the estimates), Aleppo (about 2 million), Homs, Hama, Latakia, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, Hasakah, Qamishli, Tartus, Idlib, Daraa, Suwayda; the villages of the Hauran, the Jazira and the coast; the camps (Idlib's al-Atmeh; al-Hawl of the northeast emptied 22 February 2026, Rukban of the desert emptied 2025); the destroyed districts — Homs's Baba Amr and Khalidiya, Aleppo's east, the Ghouta's Douma and Darayya, the Yarmouk camp — the reconstruction of US$216 billion by the World Bank's count of 2025 (US$400 billion by the UN's older estimate) |
| Adult literacy | About 86% by the Factbook's count of 2015 (men 92%, women 81%) — the war's lost generation: 2.4 million children out of school by UNICEF's count of 2023, a third of the schools damaged; the curriculum of 2025 with the Ba'ath struck out and the Kurdish lessons approved 28 August 2026; the universities of Damascus (1923; the largest), Aleppo (1958), Latakia (the Tishreen University of 1971) and Homs (the al-Baath University of 1979), both renamed by the decrees of June 2025, al-Furat at Deir ez-Zor, Hama, Idlib (2015; of the HTS years), Tartus, the Syrian Virtual University, the private universities of the 2000s; the exams of 2026 blocked in Suwayda (29 August 2026); the Syrian Arab Academy of Damascus (1919), the oldest Arabic-language academy |
| Ethnic groups | Arabs about 75 to 80% (the Sunni Arabs of the cities, the plains and the tribes — the Shammar, the Baggara, the Aqaydat of the Euphrates; the Alawites of the coast, the Druze of the mountain, the Christians of the cities), Kurds about 10% (the northeast of Hasakah and Qamishli, Kobani, Afrin's Kurd Mountain, the Sheikh Maqsoud of Aleppo; "integral to the national identity" by the decree of 16 January 2026), Turkmen (about 3%; Aleppo's north and Latakia's Bayirbucak), Assyrians and Syriacs (the Khabur and Hasakah; the Jazira's Christians), Armenians (Aleppo and Kessab; about 100,000 before the war, fewer than half now by the estimates), Circassians (Quneitra and the Golan; about 100,000), Chechens, Greeks, the Dom; the Palestinians (about 500,000) and the Iraqis; no census by ethnicity since the French |
| Languages | Arabic (the Syrian dialect of the Levantine family — the Damascene of the Ramadan dramas the Arab world watches, the Aleppine, the coastal, the Bedouin of the Badiya; Modern Standard Arabic in the state and the press), Kurdish (Kurmanji; a national language by the decree of 16 January 2026; in the schools from 2026–27), Western Neo-Aramaic at Maaloula, Jubb'adin and Bakh'a (the tongue of Christ's time, a few thousand speakers), Syriac in the churches and among the Assyrians, Armenian, Turkish (the Turkmen), Circassian, Chechen, Greek, Domari; English and French of the schools (French of the Mandate fading); the four scripts of Damascus's signboards |
| Religion | Sunni Muslims about three in four (74% by the older counts — Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Circassians), Alawites about 10% (the coast, Homs, Damascus; the Assads' sect; the coastal massacres of 6–10 March 2025, 1,426 dead by the committee's count), Christians about 3 to 5% (a tenth before the war by the counts — the Greek Orthodox of Antioch at Damascus, the Syriac Orthodox, the Melkites, the Armenians, the Maronites, the Assyrian Church of the East, the Chaldeans, the Latins and the Protestants; the Mar Elias church bombing of 22 June 2025, 25 dead), Druze about 3% (Suwayda's Jabal al-Druze, Jaramana, Hermon's foot; the war of July 2025), Ismailis (Salamiyah), Twelver Shia (Sayyidah Zaynab's shrine; the Iranian pilgrims gone), the Yazidis (Afrin, Hasakah), the Jews (a handful of the 100,000 of 1947) — the estimates of the Factbook and the surveys; the Constitutional Declaration's Islamic jurisprudence "the main source" and its freedom of belief; the Grand Mufti Osama al-Rifai since 2025, the Assad-era mufti Hassoun sentenced to life on 24 August 2026 |
| Human Development Index | 0.564 (2023) — medium, 162nd of 193 (UNDP, 2025), down from about 0.65 in 2010 by the old series; the poverty — 90% under the national line by the UN's count of 2022–24, 20.9% under US$3 a day and 46.8% under US$4.20 by the World Bank (2025), 14 million food insecure by the WFP and the FAO (2025); the Gini about 27 by the old counts, the war's wealth in a few hands; the remittances of the diaspora the lifeline by the estimates; the public wage floor of about US$75 a month (2025) raised toward US$300 by the plan of 2026 |
| Housing and living | The war's wreck — hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed and a third of the housing damaged by the UN's counts, the return to the rubble of Homs, Aleppo's east, the Ghouta and Daraa; the electricity of two to four hours a day at the Assad state's end, rising with the Azerbaijani gas by Turkey since 2 August 2025 and the US$7 billion power memorandum of 29 May 2025 (Qatar's UCC, Power International, the Turkish Kalyon and Cengiz, GE Vernova; 5,000 MW); the bread subsidy cut (the bundle ten times dearer in January 2025), the fuel freed (diesel to 175 new pounds a liter on 13–14 September 2026 and the widest protests since the fall, the cut of 18 September), the public wages raised (200% by Decree 102 of June 2025 to a floor of 750,000 old pounds, about US$75; Decree 67 of 2026 from May toward the 400% the President promised), the dollar in the tills, the new pound; the rents of Damascus in dollars, the water trucks, the diesel generators' "amperes"; the checkpoints gone, the cafés of Damascus full, Assala's concert of 18 September 2026 after 15 years; the captagon of the Assad years burned |
| Learning and letters | The alphabet of Ugarit (c. 1400 BC; the first alphabetic cuneiform) and Ebla's archive of 17,000 tablets (c. 2400 BC); the Umayyad Damascus of the caliphs; the poets — al-Mutanabbi at Sayf al-Dawla's Aleppo (the 950s), Abu Firas al-Hamdani, al-Ma'arri of Ma'arrat al-Nu'man (973–1057; the blind skeptic whose statue was beheaded in 2013), Nizar Qabbani (1923–98; the poet of love and of Damascus), Adonis (born 1930; the exile of Paris), Muhammad al-Maghut, Ghada al-Samman, Hanna Mina, Zakaria Tamer, Khaled Khalifa (1964–2023; "In Praise of Hatred," "Death Is Hard Work"), Samar Yazbek; the theater of Saadallah Wannous ("we are condemned to hope"); the cinema of Omar Amiralay and Mohammad Malas, the Oscar-nominated "For Sama" (2019) and "The Cave"; the music — Sabah Fakhri and Aleppo's qudud, Farid al-Atrash and Asmahan of Suwayda's Atrash clan, George Wassouf, Assala Nasri, Omar Souleyman; the Ramadan dramas of Damascus ("Bab al-Hara"); the National Museum of Damascus (1919; reopened 2018) and the Aleppo museum; the Syrian Arab Academy (1919); the University of Damascus (1923); Steve Jobs's father of Homs |
| Sport | Football — the "Qasioun Eagles" (the Asian Cup of 2023's round of 16 the best; the World Cup play-off of 2017 lost to Australia; the 2026 qualifying ended in the second round; the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying of 2025–26), the league of Al-Karamah, Al-Ittihad, Al-Jaish, Al-Wahda and Tishreen (the seasons of the war played on), Omar Al Somah of the Saudi league's records and Omar Khribin; the Olympic medals ×4 (Shouaa's gold of 1996, Atiyeh 1984, Al-Shami 2004, Man Asaad 2021), the Paris of 2024 without a medal, Hend Zaza the youngest Olympian of Tokyo at 12; basketball (Al-Jalaa of Aleppo; the national team of the Asian Games), the weightlifting and the wrestling of the Aleppo clubs, the boxing, the equestrian Arabians of the Badiya, the chess of the Damascus cafés; the Mediterranean Games of Latakia (1987); the Abbasiyyin, the Aleppo International and the Latakia stadiums; the refugee athletes of Rio and Tokyo (Yusra Mardini the swimmer of Damascus) |
| Diaspora | The largest flight of the century — 6.8 million refugees at the peak (2016–24) and about 4 million still abroad by the counts of 2026: Turkey about 2.4 million by the UNHCR's registers (fewer with the returns), Lebanon about 700,000 registered and more without, Jordan about half a million, Iraq about 270,000, Egypt about 150,000, Germany about a million Syrians (the 2015 wave; the citizens of Berlin, Essen and Hamburg), Sweden, Austria, the Netherlands, Greece, Canada, Britain, the Gulf's workers; the returns of 3.5 million by the President's count; the old diaspora — the Syrian-Lebanese of Brazil (the millions of Levantine descent by the counts), Argentina (Carlos Menem's parents of Yabroud), Venezuela, Chile, Mexico, the United States (Steve Jobs's father of Homs; the Syrian Jews of Brooklyn), Australia; the Mahjar writers of New York; the Syrian doctors of the Gulf's hospitals and the Cairo and Istanbul of the exiles; the Syrian Interim Government of the exile years |
Government
| Form of government | A unitary republic in transition under the Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025 — a presidential system for five years (to 2030): the executive in the President of the Republic, who appoints the ministers (no prime minister), a third of the People's Assembly and the governors of the 14 governorates, a People's Assembly of 210 by electoral colleges and appointment for 30 months, a Supreme Constitutional Court (Issam al-Khalif its president since 11 July 2026), Islamic jurisprudence the main source of law, Arabic the official language, the freedoms written; the Ba'ath state of 8 March 1963 – 8 December 2024 (the Assads father and son from 1970; the constitutions of 1973 and 2012, the one-party rule and the referendums of 97%) ended by the offensive of 27 November – 8 December 2024 and struck out by the Victory Conference of 29 January 2025, which dissolved the constitution, the party, the parliament, the old army and the factions; the permanent constitution and the elections promised for the transition's end; the Golan under Israel, Suwayda outside the state's full hand |
|---|---|
| President | Ahmed al-Sharaa (born 29 October 1982 at Riyadh to a family of the Golan; "Abu Mohammad al-Jolani" of the Iraq war's al-Qaeda and the U.S. prisons of 2006–11, the Nusra Front of 2012, the break with al-Qaeda of 2016, Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham of 2017 and the rule of Idlib to 2024) — the President of the Republic for the transition since 29 January 2025 by the Victory Conference of the factions' commanders, the commander-in-chief; the terrorist labels lifted (the U.S. designation of HTS revoked 7 July 2025, the Security Council's Resolution 2799 of 6 November 2025 delisting him and Anas Khattab, the U.S. Specially Designated Global Terrorist list the same day); the first Syrian president at the General Assembly since 1967 (24 September 2025) and again 23 September 2026 ("a new phase of revival"), the White House on 10 November 2025 (the first Syrian president there), the Kremlin twice (October 2025 and January 2026), the Élysée's Macron in Damascus (6 July 2026); wife Latifa al-Droubi, three sons; the brothers Maher (the presidency's secretary-general to 9 May 2026) and Hazem the "family question" of the critics; no vice president — the post empty |
| Prime Minister | None — the post abolished by the Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025, the President presiding over the ministers; Mohammed al-Bashir (the Idlib "Salvation Government's" premier) the caretaker prime minister of 10 December 2024 to 29 March 2025 and the energy minister since; the Secretary-General of the Presidency Abdul Rahman al-Aama since 9 May 2026 (Maher al-Sharaa before him), Ali Keda the assistant for the cabinet's affairs, Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan the media adviser, Mazloum Abdi the adviser since 28 August 2026; Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali the Assad state's last prime minister (September–December 2024), who handed the ministries over on 8 December 2024 |
| Cabinet | 23 ministers sworn in 29 March 2025 (four of the minorities among them; one woman) — Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Asaad al-Shaibani (since December 2024), Defense Murhaf Abu Qasra, Interior Anas Khattab, Finance Mohammed Yisr Barnieh, Economy and Industry Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar, Justice Mazhar al-Wais, Energy Mohammed al-Bashir, Health Musaab Nazzal al-Ali, Education Mohammad Abdul Rahman Tarkou (Kurdish), Higher Education Marwan al-Halabi, Social Affairs and Labor Hind Kabawat (the Christian woman of the cabinet), Emergency and Disaster Management Raed al-Saleh (the White Helmets' chief), Endowments Mohammed Abu al-Khair Shukri, Local Administration and Environment Mohammed Anjrani, Communications Abdul Salam Haykal, Public Works and Housing Mustafa Abdul Razzaq, Culture Mohammed Yassin Saleh, Sports and Youth Mohammad Sameh Hamedh, Tourism Mazen al-Salhani, Administrative Development Mohammad Skaf, Transport Yaarub Bader (Alawite), Agriculture Basel al-Suweydan (since the reshuffle of 9 May 2026, for the Druze Amjad Badr), Information Khaled Fawaz Zaarour (since 9 May 2026, for Hamza al-Mustafa); the HTS men of Idlib in the security posts, the technocrats and the exiles around them; the central bank's Abdulkader Husrieh; the Grand Mufti Osama al-Rifai |
| The last election | The People's Assembly of 5 October 2025, the first since the fall — by electoral colleges, not ballots: 6,817 college members chosen by the Higher Committee's subcommittees in the 14 governorates voted for 140 of the 210 seats (119 filled on the day; the rounds of 23 October 2025, 17 March 2026 for Raqqa, Tabqa and Tal Abyad and 24 May 2026 for Kobani and Hasakah after the Kurdish agreement; Suwayda's seats still empty), no parties (132 of the 140 independents by the counts, about 25 close to the Muslim Brotherhood by the estimates, the Kurdish parties 7 — the KDP-S, the KDUP and the KDEP), women 6 of the 140, the minorities about 10; the 70 appointed by the President on 1 July 2026 (15 women; "23 notables and 47 professionals"); the critics' case (no popular vote, a third the President's, the women and the minorities few — the UN's envoy among them) and the government's (no census, no voter roll, half the people displaced; the colleges first, the ballots after) — both stated (LAW 2); the Assad state's last vote of 15 July 2024 (the Ba'ath's 169 of 250) annulled by the fall |
| Parliament | Unicameral — the People's Assembly (Majlis al-Sha'b) of 210 for a term of 30 months (to about January 2028) by the Constitutional Declaration, convened 12 July 2026 for the first time since the fall (the collective oath), Abdul Hamid al-Awak (independent) the Speaker with 99 of 205 votes, the two deputy speakers and the secretary elected the same day; the laws by the Assembly and the President's decrees; the Assad-era Assembly of 250 dissolved 29 January 2025; the parliament building of the Salhiyah in Damascus (1932; the Mandate's); the Higher Committee for the People's Assembly Elections of Mohammed Taha al-Ahmad; the Supreme Constitutional Court seated 11 July 2026 |
| The politics of the year | The state's hand reaching the corners — THE NORTHEAST: the offensive of 13–30 January 2026 (Deir Hafir and Maskana 17 January, the al-Omar field 18 January, al-Hawl 21 January, Tabqa, Yaarubiyah and the Conoco field; about 1,000 fighters and 152 civilians dead by the counts of 18 January), the ceasefires of 18 and 20 January, the agreement of 30 January (the SDF into the army man by man, three brigades in the 60th Division; the oil, the crossings and the ISIS prisons to Damascus; the Kurdish rights), the decree of 16 January (the Kurds "integral," Kurdish a national language, Nowruz a holiday), al-Hawl emptied 22 February, the al-Aqtan prison break of 19 January (120 ISIS men), the elections of 17 March and 24 May, the "completion" of 21 August, the SDF dissolved by Mazloum Abdi on 25 August and Abdi the presidential adviser of 28 August; THE SOUTH: Suwayda outside the state's full hand — Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri's National Guard and its Administrative Council of Jabal Bashan (April 2026), the demand of autonomy, the exam blockade of 29 August, the clashes of 1 September at Mazraa (one dead); Israel's hand — the buffer zone and Hermon since 8 December 2024, the strikes of 20 March and 18 August (Abu al-Duhur), the Paris talks of 5–6 January and the communication cell, the "500 strikes, 1,200 incursions and 300 detentions" of the UN speech; THE REGION: the Iran war since 28 February 2026 (Syria neutral; the Suwayda blast of that night, four dead — an Iranian missile by one account, an old missile mishandled by the authorities' — both stated; 120,000 fleeing Lebanon's war into Syria by mid-March; the fuel and the food dearer), the Russia bases memorandum of 9 August, the Americans gone (al-Tanf 12 February, Shaddadi 15 February, Qasrak 16 April), the terrorism list left 24 August; THE STATE: the People's Assembly of 12 July, the reshuffle of 9 May (Maher al-Sharaa out of the presidency), Assad sentenced to death in absentia on 11 August, the Counter-Terrorism Court abolished 16 September, the new pound of 3 January, the wage decree of May, the fuel protests of 13–18 September (the widest since the fall; the diesel cut), the bombings of Damascus (2 and 7 July), Macron's visit (6 July), the Chevron and Saudi deals (4 and 7 February); the government's case (a state rebuilt from zero, the guns gathered, 3.5 million home, the sanctions gone) and the critics' (one man's rule, the coast's 1,426 and Suwayda's dead only partly punished, the minorities' fear, an assembly without ballots) — both stated (LAW 2) |
| Next elections | The People's Assembly's term of 30 months runs to about January 2028 by the Constitutional Declaration; the permanent constitution's referendum and the presidential and parliamentary elections at the transition's end by 2030 (the President's "four to five years" of December 2024); Suwayda's empty seats when the governorate comes in; the municipal councils promised; the census promised before the ballots; the political-parties law of the declaration still to be written |
| Parties | None in the Assembly by design — the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party (1947; in power 8 March 1963 – 8 December 2024) dissolved 29 January 2025 with the National Progressive Front of the Communists, the Nasserites and the Syrian Social Nationalists; Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (2017; the Nusra Front of 2012) dissolved into the state the same day; the Syrian National Coalition of the exile (2012) folded into the new state; the Muslim Brotherhood (banned on pain of death by Law 49 of 1980; the ban gone with the regime) back in the open, about 25 of the elected close to it by the estimates; the Kurdish parties — the Kurdish National Council's KDP-S, the KDUP and the KDEP (7 seats), the PYD of the SDF years; the Druze "Men of Dignity" and al-Hijri's National Guard; the Syrian Future Movement and the civil-society groups; the Assad clan in Moscow; the political-parties law promised |
| Legal system | Civil law of the French Mandate and the Ottoman Majalla with Islamic law in personal status — the Civil Code and the Penal Code of 1949, the personal-status law of 1953 with the churches' own courts; the Constitutional Declaration's Islamic jurisprudence "the main source"; the Court of Cassation, the Supreme Constitutional Court seated 11 July 2026, the Counter-Terrorism Court of 2012 abolished 16 September 2026 (the Assad court of the tens of thousands), the Field Courts of 1968 and the Sednaya "slaughterhouse" opened 8 December 2024; the transitional justice — the National Commission for Transitional Justice and the Commission for Missing Persons (decrees of 17 May 2025), the coastal fact-finding committee's report of 22 July 2025 (1,426 dead, 298 suspects named), the Suwayda committee; the trials — Assad sentenced to death in absentia with his cousin Atef Najib (11 August 2026), the mufti Hassoun to life (24 August), Amjad Yousef of the Tadamon killings arrested (24 April 2026), nine pilots of the barrel bombs (11 September); the foreign courts — Koblenz (2022), the Netherlands' 26 years (15 June 2026), Britain's charge (9 March 2026), the 60 years of the United States for Adra prison's Alsheikh (17 September 2026); the death penalty kept; the OPCW's file and the chemical destruction begun (3 September 2026); the property Law 10 of 2018 to be undone; the general amnesties of 2024–25 |
| Defense | The Syrian Arab Army rebuilt from the factions — the Ministry of Defense of Murhaf Abu Qasra (HTS's military chief "Abu Hassan al-Hamawi"), the old army of the Assads dissolved 29 January 2025 and its conscription ended, the new divisions numbered anew (the SDF's three brigades in the 60th Division since 30 January 2026; the Kurdish integration "complete" 21 August 2026), a force of tens of thousands by the estimates; the Turkish training and the joint mechanism of 2025; the Global Coalition against ISIS joined 10 November 2025 and the Americans gone (al-Tanf 12 February, Shaddadi 15 February, Qasrak 16 April 2026; about 1,000 troops before), the Russian bases of Khmeimim and Tartus turned to "joint training and capacity-building centers" by the memorandum of 9 August 2026 (the civilian parts to Syria within three months); the Israeli strikes that erased the navy and the air force (8–10 December 2024) and continued (20 March and 18 August 2026), the demand of a demilitarized south; the ISIS remnant of the Badiya (the al-Aqtan break of 19 January 2026, the Mayadin and Raqqa attacks, the Palmyra cache struck by Britain and France 3 January 2026, the coalition's strikes on al-Qaeda's men in Idlib); the mines; the chemical arsenal's end declared; the spending unknown; the Chief of the Armed Forces and the general staff of the new state |
| Foreign policy | The return to the world — the Arab League seat (the Assad state readmitted 7 May 2023; the new state at the summits), Saudi Arabia and Qatar the patrons (the Riyadh meeting with Trump of 14 May 2025, the World Bank arrears paid, the Saudi forum of July 2025, the airport, Flynas and SilkLink deals of 7 February 2026), Turkey the neighbor and the ally (the border, the trade, the training, the Kurdish question, the Kilis gas), the United States (the sanctions lifted by the order of 30 June 2025 and the Caesar Act's repeal of 18 December 2025, the terrorism list left 24 August 2026, the White House of 10 November 2025, the troops gone by the spring of 2026, the coalition joined), the European Union (the economic sanctions lifted 28 May 2025; Macron in Damascus 6 July 2026, the first Western leader), Russia (Assad's host, the extradition demanded; the bases memorandum of 9 August 2026; the wheat), Iran (the Assads' ally cut off, the embassy shut, the missiles of 28 February 2026, the Hezbollah arms intercepted 16 July 2026), Israel (the occupation of the buffer zone and Hermon since 8 December 2024, the strikes, the U.S.-brokered talks of Paris of 5–6 January 2026 and the communication cell, the demand of the line of 1974; the Golan "will remain Syrian" — the UN speech of 23 September 2026), Lebanon (the prisoners' agreement of 30 January 2026, the refugees of the 2026 war), Jordan (Nasib, the captagon war, the strikes of 2026), Iraq (Yaarubiyah reopened 20 April 2026; the Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline hoped), China, Germany and the returns; Asaad al-Shaibani the foreign minister since December 2024 |
| United Nations | A founding member (the Charter signed 26 June 1945; the seat kept through the fall, the new flag raised at Turtle Bay in 2025) — al-Sharaa the first Syrian head of state at the General Assembly since 1967 (24 September 2025) and again on 23 September 2026 ("a new phase of revival"; 3.5 million home; "500 strikes, 1,200 incursions" of Israel; the Golan Syrian); the Security Council's Resolution 2254 of 18 December 2015 (the transition's roadmap) and Resolution 2799 of 6 November 2025 (the delisting); the UNDOF of the Golan since 1974 (the buffer zone Israel entered); the Commission of Inquiry of 2011 (the coastal findings of 14 August 2025: "widespread and systematic"), the IIIM of the evidence, the Independent Institution on Missing Persons; the UNHCR's returns, the WFP's 14 million, UNICEF's 2.4 million out of school, the OPCW's chemical file, the IAEA on the reactor of 2007 ("consistent with a nuclear reactor," 1 September 2026; the material under guarantees); the Security Council seats of 1947–48, 1970–71 and 2002–03; UNESCO's six sites in danger; the Geneva talks of 2014–19 and the Constitutional Committee of 2019 |
| Other memberships | The Arab League (a founder, 22 March 1945; suspended 12 November 2011 – 7 May 2023), the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (1972; suspended in 2012, the seat retaken after the fall by the reports), the Non-Aligned Movement (1961), the Arab Monetary Fund and the Arab Fund, the IMF and the World Bank (1947; the arrears paid by Saudi Arabia and Qatar in May 2025, the World Bank's grants back), the WTO observer (2010; the accession sought), Interpol, the OPCW (2013), the Global Coalition against ISIS (10 November 2025), the International Partnership against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons applied 22 August 2026, the Union for the Mediterranean (suspended 2011), the Asian Football Confederation and the Olympic movement (1948); not the GCC, not the Abraham Accords, the euro-Mediterranean association agreement never signed |
Economy
| GDP (nominal) | About US$20 billion (2023) by the World Bank's count — about US$21 billion for 2024 by its arithmetic (the US$216 billion reconstruction bill "nearly ten times" the GDP), the IMF's own count suspended since 2010 and its Outlook of April 2026 without a figure — the 139th economy of the world by the counts; US$67.5 billion in 2011 before the war; the estimates for 2026 higher with the returns, the sanctions' end and the informal economy uncounted (the remittances, the bazaars); the pharma of Aleppo, the oil of the Jazira and the wheat the old pillars |
|---|---|
| GDP per capita | About US$850 by the World Bank's count of 2023 (US$847; the 206th of the world), about US$2,800 in 2010 — the poverty of 90% under the national line by the UN's count and of 20.9% under US$3 a day by the World Bank's (2025); the public wage floor of about US$75 a month (June 2025) raised toward US$300 by the decree of 2026; the remittances the second income by the estimates |
| GDP per capita (PPP) | About US$3,300 by the older counts (2021) and about US$4,800 for 2026 by the estimates of the wider counts — both stated; among the lowest of the Arab world with Yemen and Sudan, a tenth of Turkey's |
| GDP growth | 0.3% in 2023, 0.9% in 2024 and 2 to 4% in 2025 by the World Bank's Outlook of April 2026; "double digits" for 2026 by the IMF's statement of 5 August 2026 after its visit of 19–23 July (10% by the reports), "modest" strengthening by the World Bank — both stated; the collapse of 2011–15 (the economy cut by more than half, the 2010 output not seen since), the −1.2% of 2023 by the older count; the 2026 risks the Iran war's fuel and food, the drought of 2025, the Israeli strikes, the Suwayda pocket and the mines; the recovery read from the night lights and the traffic (the World Bank's proxies) and the returns |
| Economy by sector | Services about 60% by the estimates (the bazaars and the trade, the transport, the state's wages, the remittances, the telecoms of Syriatel and MTN, the return of the Gulf's projects), industry about 20% (the oil and gas of the Jazira and Palmyra back in the state's hands since January 2026, the phosphates, the cement, the Aleppo textiles that were the industry's heart before the fires of 2012, the pharmaceuticals of Damascus and Aleppo that once made 90% of the medicines, the olive oil and the laurel soap, the refineries of Baniyas and Homs), agriculture about 20% (the wheat, the olives, the cotton at a tenth of 2004's, the sheep; the drought of 2025 the harvest of a quarter); the war economy of the Assad years — the captagon of US$5 billion a year by the estimates, the smuggling, the checkpoints' fees — ended in the raids of 2025; the private turn — the Damascus Securities Exchange reopened 2 June 2025, the subsidies cut, the state firms for sale, the investment law reworked, the Damascus International Fair of 2025 and 2026 |
| Currency and prices | The new pound of 3 January 2026 (100 old to 1; 111 to the U.S. dollar at the launch, about 120 in September 2026 by the market's counts; the old pound from 47 in 2011 to about 15,000 in 2024) — inflation 129.9% in 2023, 72.1% in 2024, 11.5% in 2025 by the World Bank's count, "picked up considerably" in 2026 by the IMF's on the Iran war's fuel and food, the wage rises and the utility prices, the fall promised for 2027; the Central Bank of Syria of Abdulkader Husrieh (the sanctions on it lifted 2025), the reserves of about US$500 million by the counts of March 2026 and the gold of about 26 metric tons by the reports; the bread bundle from 400 to 4,000 old pounds (January 2025), the diesel to 175 new pounds a liter (13–14 September 2026) and back to 115 and 150 (18 September); the dollar legal; the SWIFT lines and the correspondent banks returning by the reports; the exchange bureaus of the Hamidiyah |
| Tourism | The return of the visitors — Damascus's Umayyad Mosque, the Old City and the Hamidiyah, Mount Qasioun, the Azm Palace, Maaloula's Aramaic villages and Saydnaya's convent, Bosra's theater, Palmyra's ruins (the Arch to be rebuilt), Krak des Chevaliers, Apamea's colonnade, the Dead Cities and St. Simeon, Aleppo's Citadel and the souks rebuilt in part, Hama's norias, Ugarit, Ebla, Mari and Dura-Europos, Latakia's corniche and Arwad, the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor; the diaspora and the Gulf first, by the hundreds of thousands by the ministry's counts of 2025–26 (8.5 million visitors in 2010, the peak); the visa on arrival for many; the hotels of Damascus (the Four Seasons of 2005), the boutique houses of the Old City; the embassies' warnings; the religious tourism of Sayyidah Zaynab and Sayyidah Ruqayya gone with the Iranians; the Ministry of Tourism of Mazen al-Salhani |
| Oil, industry and energy | The oil of the Jazira and the Euphrates — about 380,000 barrels a day in 2010 by the counts, some 24,000 by 2018 and about 40,000 in the SDF's years from al-Omar, the Tanak, Rmeilan and Suwaydiyah, the fields back in the state's hands since 18 January 2026; the refineries of Baniyas (about 130,000 barrels a day of design; the overhaul of 2026) and Homs (about 110,000); the imports by tanker (the Iranian oil of the Assad years replaced by the Gulf's and the Iraqi crude; the Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline's revival talked); the gas of Palmyra's Shaer, Jazal and Hayan and the Conoco plant (the Jabsah pipeline explosion of 18 August 2026 "sabotage"); the offshore blocks to Chevron and Qatar's Power International with the Syrian Petroleum Company (4 February 2026); the phosphates of Palmyra (Stroytransgaz's concession of 2018); the industries — the cement of Adra and Tartus, the Aleppo textiles and the Damascus and Aleppo pharmaceuticals, the Aleppo laurel soap and the olive presses, the sugar of Homs, the steel and the plastics, the Adra Free Zone, the Turkish factories of the north; the electricity — two to four hours a day at the Assad state's end (the grid a fifth of 2010's), the Azerbaijani gas by Turkey's Kilis since 2 August 2025 (about 2 billion m³ a year for 1,200 MW), the Jordanian line, the US$7 billion memorandum of 29 May 2025 (Qatar's UCC, Power International, Kalyon, Cengiz and GE Vernova; four gas plants of 4,000 MW and a solar plant of 1,000 MW), the target of 12 GW by 2030; the Ministry of Energy of Mohammed al-Bashir |
| Agriculture and fisheries | About a fifth of GDP and the work of a quarter of the people — the wheat of the Jazira and the Hauran (4 million metric tons in the good years of the 2000s; about a million in the drought of 2025, the worst in 60 years by the FAO's count; the imports from Russia and the Gulf's donations), the barley, the cotton of Raqqa (a million metric tons in 2004, a tenth since), the olives (about 100 million trees by the counts; Idlib, Afrin and the coast; among the world's largest producers in the good years), the pistachios of Aleppo, the citrus and the tobacco of the coast, the Damask roses of al-Mrah, the apples of Zabadani, the apricots and the grapes of the Ghouta, the tomatoes and the greenhouses of Latakia, the sugar beet of the Ghab; the Awassi sheep of the Badiya (about 20 million before the war, halved by the counts), the goats, the poultry; the fisheries of the coast, Lake Assad and the Euphrates small; the irrigation of 1.4 million ha by the Euphrates and the wells; 14 million food insecure by the WFP's count of 2025; the food-security policies of the Ministry of Agriculture of Basel al-Suweydan |
| Services and finance | The state banks — the Commercial Bank of Syria (1967), the Real Estate Bank, the Agricultural Cooperative Bank, the Popular Credit Bank, the Savings Bank — and the private banks of 2004 onward (Bank Audi Syria, Byblos, BLOM, Bank of Syria and Overseas, Qatar National Bank Syria, the Islamic banks of Cham and Al Baraka), the Central Bank of Syria (1953; the U.S. sanctions on it lifted 2025), the Damascus Securities Exchange (2009; reopened 2 June 2025 after the war's close), the insurance companies, the exchange companies and the hawala of the remittances; the SWIFT reconnection and the correspondent banks returning by the reports; the IMF's technical missions (June and November 2025, July 2026) and its call for new central-bank and banking laws; the World Bank's grant of US$146 million for the grid (June 2025) after the arrears paid by Saudi Arabia and Qatar (US$15.5 million, May 2025); the telecoms — Syriatel (seized from Rami Makhlouf, 2020–24; the state's) and MTN Syria, the Syrian Telecom's internet, the Saudi SilkLink cable project (7 February 2026); the Gulf's investment funds; the reconstruction's US$216 billion by the World Bank (2025) and US$400 billion by the UN's older estimate — both stated; the Syrian Development Fund (2025) |
| Trade | Exports about US$1.1 billion (2024) — the olive oil, the spices (cumin, aniseed, coriander), the barley and the wheat in the good years, the cotton and the textiles, the phosphates, the fruit and the vegetables, the pharmaceuticals of old; to Turkey (about 39%), Saudi Arabia (16%), Lebanon (12%), Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, the Emirates; imports about US$3.9 billion (2024) — the fuel, the wheat and the food, the cars, the machines, the cigarettes; from Turkey (about 56%), China (10%), Egypt (8.5%), the Emirates, Lebanon, Russia; the deficit paid by the remittances and the aid; the exports of US$12 billion of 2010 (the oil) the memory; the sanctions' end — the U.S. order of 30 June 2025, the Caesar Act repealed 18 December 2025, the EU's lifting of 28 May 2025 (the arms embargo kept), the State Sponsors of Terrorism list left 24 August 2026, the export controls eased; the crossings — Nasib to Jordan, Bab al-Hawa and Kasab to Turkey, al-Bukamal and Yaarubiyah (20 April 2026) to Iraq, Masnaa to Lebanon; the ports of Latakia (CMA CGM's 30 years, May 2025) and Tartus (DP World's US$800 million, 13 July 2025); the Damascus International Fair of 2025 and 2026; the Turkish customs talk |
| Energy | Electricity of hours — the grid at a fifth of its 9,500 MW of 2010 after the war (the Aleppo, Zayzoun, Deir Ali and Jandar plants; two to four hours a day in 2024), the Azerbaijani gas by Kilis since 2 August 2025 (1,200 MW's worth), the Jordanian and the Turkish lines, the US$7 billion memorandum of 29 May 2025 (5,000 MW of gas and solar), the World Bank's US$146 million for the lines, the target 12 GW by 2030, the solar of the roofs and the diesel generators' "amperes" trade; the oil and gas of the Jazira and Palmyra (the fields back under the state in January 2026), the refineries of Baniyas (the overhaul of 2026) and Homs; the fuel imports from the Gulf (the Saudi and Qatari tankers of 2025) and the Iran war's prices since February 2026 (the diesel of September and the protests); the hydropower of the Euphrates dams (Tabqa's 800 MW of design; the low water), the Tishrin dam of the front line of 2024–26; the Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline's revival hoped; the nuclear — the Al Kibar reactor Israel bombed on 6 September 2007 "consistent with a nuclear reactor" by the IAEA's finding of 1 September 2026, the material under guarantees; the Ministry of Energy of Mohammed al-Bashir |
| Labor and wages | A labor force of about 8 million by the estimates (the returns adding) — unemployment about 14% by the estimates of 2026 (the youth about a third; 50% and more in the war's worst years by the counts), the informal work of most, the women about 15% of the force by the ILO's count; the public employees of about 1.3 million (the payroll purged of the Assad state's ghost workers and the layoffs of 2025), the public wage floor of 750,000 old pounds (about US$75) by Decree 102 of June 2025 (a rise of 200%) and Decree 67 of 2026 paid from the last week of May toward the 400% the President promised (the doctors and the teachers first by the reports), the dollar salaries of the aid groups ended April 2026; no private minimum wage by the reports; the emigrants' remittances; the labor law of 2010 and the unions of the GFTU (the Ba'ath's); the child labor of the camps; the returnees' jobs the test |
| Public finances | The budget of 2025 ended with a small surplus (+1.4% of GDP by the World Bank's count; the IMF's "small surplus") after the deficits of −7.7% (2023) and −5.1% (2024), the revenue "projected to increase substantially" in 2026 by the IMF — the customs simplified (2025), the income tax rewritten, the subsidies of bread and fuel cut, the payroll purged, the state's firms for sale; the public debt about 35% of GDP by the estimates, the Assad state's debts to Iran (US$30 billion and more claimed) and Russia disputed; the aid — the Gulf's, the World Bank's grants, the EU's €2.5 billion of the Brussels conference of March 2025; the frozen assets abroad sought; the Assad and Makhlouf fortunes seized (the Syriatel case); the Syrian Development Fund of 2025; the IMF's help without a program yet; the Ministry of Finance of Mohammed Yisr Barnieh |
| Income classification | Low income by the World Bank (since 2018; about US$850 a head); medium human development (0.564, 162nd); a fragile, post-conflict state to the donors, on no debt-relief list; the sanctions gone (2025–26), the ratings none; the economy in transition to the market |
Transport & infrastructure
| Airports | Damascus International (DAM; the flights of the world back from 7 January 2025 — Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Emirates and flydubai, Royal Jordanian, Saudia, the European carriers returning; the Qatari consortium's new-terminal agreement of 2025), Aleppo International (the Saudi development agreement of 7 February 2026), Latakia (the civil field beside Khmeimim), Qamishli, Deir ez-Zor, Palmyra; Syrian Air (1946; the Airbus fleet grounded by the sanctions, the parts allowed in since 2025), Cham Wings (2007), Flynas Syria (the Saudi joint venture of 7 February 2026); the bans on the airline eased with the sanctions; the Mezzeh air base struck by a missile on 3 January 2026; the Abu al-Duhur base struck by Israel 18 August 2026; the Khmeimim base of Russia turned to "joint training" (9 August 2026) |
|---|---|
| Ports | Latakia (the largest; the container terminal to CMA CGM for 30 years by the agreement of May 2025, €230 million), Tartus (the second; DP World's US$800 million concession of 13 July 2025; the Russian naval facility of 1971 under the memorandum of 9 August 2026), Baniyas (the oil terminal and the refinery), Jableh, Arwad's fishing harbor; the merchant fleet small under the Syrian flag; the Euphrates unnavigable; the Iraqi and Gulf trade by the desert roads |
| Railways | About 2,000 km of the Chemins de Fer Syriens (the state railway of 1897's Hejaz line and the Baghdad railway of 1912–18 along the Turkish border; the standard gauge of Aleppo–Damascus–Homs, Latakia–Aleppo, the Jazira line to Qamishli, the phosphates line of Palmyra–Homs–Tartus of the 1970s), the war's stop of 2012 (the Damascus–Aleppo line cut for 12 years; the runs resuming line by line by the reports of 2025), the Hejaz Railway of 1908 from Damascus to Medina (1,300 km; the narrow gauge of the Hejaz station and the Zabadani excursion trains), the Turkish link at Meydan Ekbez and Nusaybin (the Tehran–Damascus train of the 2000s gone), the Iraq link by Yaarubiyah hoped, the Damascus–Aleppo restoration studied with Turkey; the Damascus metro of the plans since 2008 never built |
| Roads | About 70,000 km by the Factbook's count of 2010 — the M5 from the Jordanian border by Damascus to Aleppo (about 450 km; the war's front for a decade, open end to end since 2025), the M4 Latakia–Aleppo–Hasakah to Iraq, the M1 of the coast (Latakia–Tartus), the Damascus–Beirut road by Masnaa, the Damascus–Amman by Nasib (the trade's artery), the Damascus–Baghdad by the desert and al-Bukamal, the Homs–Palmyra–Deir ez-Zor desert road, the Aleppo–Gaziantep of Bab al-Hawa; the checkpoints and the fees of the war ended in 2025; the mines of the verges; the Pullman buses and the microbuses; the Iranian cars of the Assad years and the used cars of the Gulf; right-hand traffic; the Deir ez-Zor bus crash of 25 July 2026 (35 dead) and the Grad rockets found at al-Harra in Daraa (4 August 2026) |
| City transport | The microbuses ("servees") and the state buses of Damascus, the taxis (the meters seldom), the ride apps, the Damascus ring road and the Mezzeh highway; Aleppo's buses (the trams of 1929–52 a memory); the "servees" of every city; the pedestrian old cities of Damascus, Aleppo and Homs; the Hejaz excursion trains to Zabadani; the bicycle back in the Ghouta; the Damascus metro of the plans (the green line of 2008) never built; the congestion of the Umayyad Square and the fuel queues of 2024 gone with the imports |
| Utilities | Electricity — the Public Establishment of Electricity under the Ministry of Energy (the hours rising with the Kilis gas since August 2025 and the Gulf's fuel; the 24-hour promise), the generators' "amperes" subscriptions; water — Damascus from the Fijeh spring and the Barada (cut in the fighting of 2016–17), Aleppo from the Euphrates by the Khafsa pumps (fought over in 2016–17), Hasakah's Alouk station (held from 2019–24 by the Turkish-backed factions, back), the wells and the water trucks, the cholera of 2022; the telecoms — Syriatel (the state's since the Makhlouf seizure of 2020–24) and MTN Syria, the 4G of the cities, the Syrian Telecom's internet and the fiber of the plans, the SilkLink cable of the Saudi deal (7 February 2026); the post of the Syrian Post; the sewage and the garbage of the returning cities; the shelters of the war's basements |
| The country | The Umayyad Mosque and the Old City of Damascus, the Souq al-Hamidiyah, Bakdash's ice cream, the Azm Palace, Mount Qasioun at night; Maaloula's Aramaic and Saydnaya's convent; Aleppo's Citadel, the Great Mosque and the souks; Palmyra and the Valley of the Tombs; Krak des Chevaliers and Saladin's castle; Bosra's black theater; Apamea's colonnade of 2 km; the Dead Cities and St. Simeon's; Hama's norias on the Orontes; Homs's Khalid ibn al-Walid Mosque; Ugarit's tablets and Ebla's mound; Mari's palace and Dura-Europos above the Euphrates; Latakia's corniche and Arwad by boat; the Euphrates at Deir ez-Zor's bridge and Raqqa's Abbasid walls; Qamishli's Newroz; the Druze mountain's Shahba and Qanawat; the ruins of Quneitra on the Golan; the apples of Zabadani and the air of Bloudan; Sednaya and the memory of the prisons |
History in dates
| c. 11,000 – 2400 BC | Tell Abu Hureyra on the Euphrates and the first farmers of the world (the einkorn of c. 9500 BC), Tell Halaf's painted pottery, the Ubaid; Ebla (c. 2400 BC; the archive of 17,000 tablets found in 1975 by Paolo Matthiae's dig), Mari on the Euphrates (Zimri-Lim's palace of 1800 BC), the Amorites of Yamhad (Aleppo) and Qatna, the Hurrians of Mitanni, the Hittites and the Egyptians at Kadesh on the Orontes (1274 BC) |
|---|---|
| c. 1400 – 539 BC | Ugarit's alphabet of 30 cuneiform signs (c. 1400 BC), the Phoenicians of Arwad; the Aramaeans and the kingdom of Aram-Damascus (the Bible's Ben-Hadad and Hazael; the Aramaic that became the Near East's tongue), the Neo-Hittites of Carchemish; the Assyrians take Damascus (732 BC), the Babylonians, and Cyrus's Persians (539 BC) make the satrapy "Beyond the River" |
| 333 – 64 BC | Alexander at Issus (333 BC); the Seleucids — Antioch (300 BC), Apamea, Seleucia, Dura-Europos, Palmyra's caravans; the Nabataeans at Bosra, the Armenians of Tigranes (83–69 BC); Pompey makes the Roman province of Syria (64 BC) — Damascus of the Decapolis, Antioch the third city of the empire |
| 64 BC – 636 | Roman and Byzantine Syria — St. Paul's road to Damascus (c. 36) and the Straight Street; Palmyra's wealth and Zenobia's revolt (270–73; Aurelian's triumph), the Syrian emperors of Rome (Elagabalus of Emesa/Homs, Philip the Arab of Shahba, 244–49), the Dead Cities' olive prosperity, Simeon Stylites on his pillar (423–59), the Ghassanid Arabs of the frontier, the Persian occupation (611–28); the Antioch earthquake of 526 |
| 636 – 750 | The Muslim conquest — Yarmouk (20 August 636; Khalid ibn al-Walid), Damascus taken (634–36), Mu'awiya the governor and then the caliph: the Umayyad Caliphate at Damascus (661–750), the Great Mosque of al-Walid (705–15), the desert palaces of Qasr al-Hayr and Rusafa, the empire from Spain to the Indus ruled from the Barada; the Abbasid revolution and the Battle of the Zab (750), the capital gone to Baghdad |
| 750 – 1098 | The Abbasids; the Tulunids and the Ikhshidids of Egypt; the Hamdanids of Aleppo (Sayf al-Dawla, 945–67; al-Mutanabbi and al-Farabi at his court); the Byzantines retake Antioch (969); the Fatimids; the Seljuks (the 1070s; Damascus and Aleppo); al-Ma'arri's skepticism |
| 1098 – 1291 | The Crusades — Antioch (1098), Edessa and Tripoli, Krak des Chevaliers of the Hospitallers (1142–1271); Zengi takes Edessa (1144), Nur al-Din unites Damascus and Aleppo (1154), Saladin — Hattin (4 July 1187), Jerusalem, his tomb at Damascus (1193) — and the Ayyubids; the Mongols sack Aleppo and Damascus (1260) and are stopped at Ain Jalut (3 September 1260) by the Mamluks of Baybars; Acre's fall (1291) ends the Crusader states |
| 1260 – 1516 | Mamluk Syria — the Mongol raids (Wadi al-Khaznadar 1299), the Black Death (1348), Timur's sack of Damascus (1400–01; the artisans carried to Samarkand), the trade of Aleppo with Venice; the Ottomans of Selim I at Marj Dabiq (24 August 1516) take it all |
| 1516 – 1831 | Ottoman Syria — the eyalets of Damascus, Aleppo and Tripoli, the hajj caravan of Damascus, the Azm governors and their palace (1750), Aleppo the third city of the empire with the Levant Company's merchants, Jazzar of Acre, the Wahhabi raids; Ibrahim Pasha's Egyptian rule (1831–40) and the Tanzimat after |
| 1840 – 1918 | The Tanzimat and the vilayets; the Damascus massacre of the Christians (July 1860; the rescue by Abd al-Qadir of Algeria), the Hejaz Railway (1908; Damascus to Medina), the Arab nationalists of al-Fatat (1911), the war — Jamal Pasha's hangings of 6 May 1916 at Marjeh Square (Martyrs' Day), the famine, the Arab Revolt (June 1916) and Faisal's entry into Damascus with Lawrence (1 October 1918) |
| 1918 – 1920 | Faisal's Arab government at Damascus, the Syrian National Congress (1919; the King–Crane commission), the Arab Kingdom of Syria proclaimed (8 March 1920; Faisal I), San Remo hands the Mandate to France (April 1920), Maysalun (24 July 1920; Yusuf al-Azma killed), Damascus occupied (25 July); the land cut into the states of Damascus, Aleppo, the Alawites and the Druze and the Greater Lebanon of 1 September 1920 |
| 1920 – 1946 | The French Mandate — the Great Syrian Revolt of Sultan al-Atrash (1925–27; Damascus shelled), the constitution of 1930 and the Republic (1932), the National Bloc, the treaty of 1936 unratified, the Sanjak of Alexandretta lost to Turkey (1939), Vichy and the British–Free French invasion (June–July 1941), independence declared (1941) and recognized (1 January 1944), the UN Charter signed (26 June 1945), the French bombardment of Damascus (29 May 1945), the last troops out — 17 April 1946, Evacuation Day |
| 1946 – 1958 | The First Republic of Shukri al-Quwatli, the Palestine war (1948), the three coups of 1949 (Husni al-Za'im in March, Sami al-Hinnawi in August, Adib al-Shishakli in December), Shishakli's rule to 1954, the Ba'ath's rise with the Communists', the Suez year and the Soviet arms; the union with Nasser's Egypt — the United Arab Republic (1 February 1958) |
| 1958 – 1970 | The UAR's three years and the coup that ended it (28 September 1961); the Ba'ath coup of 8 March 1963 (the emergency law that lasted to 2011), the officers' regime and Salah Jadid's coup (23 February 1966), the Six-Day War and the loss of the Golan with Quneitra (5–10 June 1967), Hafez al-Assad's "Corrective Movement" (13 November 1970) |
| 1970 – 1982 | Hafez al-Assad's state — the constitution of 1973 (the riots over the president's faith), the October War (6 October 1973; the Golan almost regained, the Hermon fought over; the disengagement of 1974 and the UNDOF), Lebanon entered (1976; the 29 years to 2005), Law 49 of 1980 (death for the Muslim Brotherhood), the Tadmur prison massacre (27 June 1980), the Brotherhood's revolt and the Hama massacre (February 1982; 10,000 to 40,000 dead by the counts) |
| 1982 – 2000 | The Assad decades — the air war with Israel over Lebanon (June 1982), Rifaat's attempted coup (1984; the exile), the Taif accord and the "pax Syriana" of Lebanon (1990), the Gulf War coalition joined (1991), the Madrid talks (1991) and the Golan talks to Clinton's Geneva of 26 March 2000, Basil al-Assad's death (21 January 1994); Hafez dies (10 June 2000) and Bashar, 34, inherits by referendum (10 July 2000; 97%) |
| 2000 – 2010 | Bashar al-Assad — the Damascus Spring shut (2001), the Iraq war (2003) and the Iraqi refugees (1.5 million), the Hariri assassination at Beirut (14 February 2005) and the withdrawal from Lebanon (26 April 2005), the Damascus Declaration of the opposition (2005), Israel's strike on the Al Kibar reactor (6 September 2007), the market opening (the private banks of 2004, the Damascus exchange of 2009) and Rami Makhlouf's empire, the drought of 2006–10 that emptied the villages |
| 15 March 2011 – 2012 | The uprising — the Daraa schoolboys' graffiti (February 2011), the protests of 15 March at Damascus and of 18 March at Daraa (the first dead), the sieges of Daraa, Homs and Hama, the Free Syrian Army (29 July 2011), the Arab League's suspension (12 November 2011), the Houla massacre (25 May 2012), the Damascus bombing that killed the defense minister and Assad's brother-in-law (18 July 2012), the battle of Aleppo begun (July 2012), Kofi Annan's Geneva communiqué (30 June 2012), the Kurdish takeover of the northeast (July 2012) |
| 21 August 2013 – 2014 | The Ghouta sarin attack (about 1,400 dead by the U.S. count), the Kerry–Lavrov chemical deal (14 September 2013) and the OPCW's removal of the declared stockpile (2014), the Geneva II talks (January 2014), Assad's "election" (3 June 2014; 88.7%), ISIS declares its caliphate from Raqqa and Mosul (29 June 2014; the Yazidi genocide; Kobani's siege), the U.S.-led coalition's strikes in Syria begin (23 September 2014), the barrel bombs of Aleppo |
| 2015 – 2016 | The refugee summer (a million to Europe; Alan Kurdi's photo of 2 September 2015), Palmyra taken by ISIS (May 2015; the temples blown up, Khaled al-Asaad beheaded 18 August) and retaken (March 2016), Russia intervenes from Khmeimim (30 September 2015) with Iran and Hezbollah on the ground, Resolution 2254 (18 December 2015), the cessation of hostilities (February 2016), Turkey's Euphrates Shield (24 August 2016), east Aleppo falls to the regime (22 December 2016) |
| 2017 – 2018 | HTS formed at Idlib (28 January 2017); the Khan Shaykhun sarin attack (4 April 2017) and the U.S. Tomahawks (7 April), the Astana "de-escalation" zones, Raqqa taken from ISIS by the SDF (17 October 2017), the Deir ez-Zor siege lifted; Turkey takes Afrin (18 March 2018), the Douma chemical attack (7 April 2018) and the Western strikes (14 April), eastern Ghouta and Daraa retaken by the regime (2018), the Sochi deal on Idlib (17 September 2018), the property Law 10 |
| 2019 – 2020 | Baghuz, the caliphate's last village, falls (23 March 2019); Baghdadi killed at Barisha in Idlib (27 October 2019); Turkey's Peace Spring into the northeast (9 October 2019; Tell Abyad and Ras al-Ayn); the Idlib offensive of 2019–20 (a million displaced; the Turkish soldiers killed at Balyun, 27 February 2020; the Moscow ceasefire of 5 March 2020); the Caesar Act in force (17 June 2020), the pound's crash, the pandemic, the Makhlouf feud and Syriatel's seizure |
| 2021 – 2023 | Assad's fourth "election" (26 May 2021; 95%); the Koblenz verdict on Anwar Raslan (life; 13 January 2022); the ISIS prison break of Hasakah (January 2022); the cholera (2022); the earthquake of 6 February 2023 (about 6,000 dead in Syria; the aid's slow crossing); the Arab League readmits Assad (7 May 2023; the Jeddah summit of 19 May); the captagon state; the Suwayda protests of August 2023 that never stopped |
| 27 November – 8 December 2024 | The offensive — HTS and the Syrian National Army's "Deterrence of Aggression" from Idlib (27 November), Aleppo falls (30 November), Hama (5 December), Homs (7 December), the southern rebels reach Damascus, Assad flies to Moscow (8 December; asylum), the rebels in Damascus at dawn, Sednaya's cells opened, the prime minister al-Jalali hands over, the independence flag over the ministries; Israel enters the buffer zone and bombs the arsenals (8–10 December), Turkey's SNA takes Manbij; Mohammed al-Bashir the caretaker prime minister (10 December) |
| 29 January – 29 March 2025 | The Victory Conference makes al-Sharaa president and dissolves the constitution, the Ba'ath, the parliament, the army and the factions (29 January); the National Dialogue Conference (25 February); the coastal massacres of the Alawites (6–10 March; 1,426 dead by the committee's count of 22 July, most by the state's men after the Assad loyalists' ambushes; "widespread and systematic" by the UN's commission of 14 August); the SDF integration agreement of Abdi and al-Sharaa (10 March); the Constitutional Declaration (13 March); the government of 23 sworn in (29 March); the Druze clashes of Jaramana and Sahnaya (April–May) |
| May – December 2025 | Trump meets al-Sharaa at Riyadh and lifts the sanctions (14 May; the EU's 28 May; the order of 30 June), the transitional-justice commissions (17 May), the US$7 billion power memorandum (29 May), the Damascus exchange reopens (2 June), the Mar Elias church bombing (22 June; 25 dead), the new emblem (3 July), the Suwayda war (13–19 July; the executions, the Bedouin, Israel's strikes on the General Staff of 16 July; 87,000 displaced), the Tartus deal (13 July), the coast fires (July), the Kilis gas (2 August), al-Sharaa at the UN (24 September), the People's Assembly election (5 October), the UN delisting (6 November), the White House and the coalition (10 November), the Caesar Act repealed (18 December), the new pound unveiled (29 December) |
| 1 January – 30 April 2026 | The new pound in the tills (3 January); the Mezzeh missile and the Palmyra strike (3 January); the Paris talks with Israel and the communication cell (5–6 January); the Kurdish decree (16 January); the northeast offensive (13–30 January: Deir Hafir 17 January, al-Omar 18 January, al-Hawl 21 January; the ceasefires of 18 and 20 January; the agreement of 30 January); the al-Aqtan prison break (19 January); Rifaat al-Assad dies at 88 (20 January); the Chevron and Saudi deals (4 and 7 February); the Americans leave al-Tanf and Shaddadi (12 and 15 February); al-Hawl emptied (22 February); the Iran war begins and the Suwayda blast (28 February); the Raqqa elections (17 March); Israel's strikes of 20 March; the Americans out of Qasrak (16 April); Yaarubiyah reopened (20 April); Amjad Yousef of Tadamon arrested (24 April) |
| 1 May – 31 August 2026 | The reshuffle (9 May; Maher al-Sharaa out); the Bab Sharqi car bomb (19 May); the Kobani and Hasakah elections (24 May); the 70 appointed (1 July); the Damascus cafe bombing (2 July; nine dead) and the twin blasts (7 July); Macron in Damascus (6 July); the Supreme Constitutional Court's al-Khalif (11 July) and the People's Assembly's first session with al-Awak Speaker (12 July); the bus crash of the Deir ez-Zor road (25 July; 35 dead); the IMF's "double digits" (5 August); the Russia bases memorandum (9 August); Assad sentenced to death in absentia (11 August); the Abu al-Duhur strike and the Jabsah "sabotage" (18 August); the Kurdish integration "complete" (21 August); the terrorism list left and the mufti Hassoun's life sentence (24 August); the SDF dissolved (25 August), Abdi the adviser and the Kurdish schooling (28 August); the Suwayda exam blockade (29 August) |
| 1 – 28 September 2026 | The Suwayda clashes of Mazraa (1 September); the IAEA on the reactor of 2007 (1 September); the chemical destruction begun (3 September); the Idlib depot blast (9 September; at least 14 dead); the nine pilots arrested (11 September); the Kobani jail fire (12 September; seven dead); the fuel price rises and the widest protests since the fall (13–18 September; the diesel cut back); the Counter-Terrorism Court abolished (16 September); Alsheikh's 60 years in the United States (17 September); Assala's concert (18 September); the Deir ez-Zor blast (19 September; 11 dead); al-Sharaa at the UN — "a new phase of revival," 3.5 million home, the Golan "will remain Syrian" (23 September); the state as of 28 September 2026 — 80 years since Evacuation Day, 21 months since the fall, a transition with three years to run |
Records & firsts
| The oldest capital | Damascus, settled by the third millennium BC on the Barada (Tell Ramad beside it of the seventh), among the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth with Aleppo, Jericho and Byblos — the Umayyad capital of the caliphs (661–750) when the empire ran from Spain to the Indus |
|---|---|
| The alphabet | Ugarit's cuneiform alphabet of 30 signs (c. 1400 BC), the first known, and the Phoenician letters of the coast the ancestor of the world's; Ebla's archive of 17,000 tablets (c. 2400 BC) the oldest library found |
| The Umayyad Mosque | The Great Mosque of Damascus (705–15) among the oldest and largest of Islam, on the temple of Jupiter and the church of John the Baptist, the shrine of the Baptist's head inside; the first mosque a pope entered (John Paul II, 6 May 2001) |
| Krak des Chevaliers | The best-preserved Crusader castle of the world (1142–1271; T. E. Lawrence's "most wholly admirable castle"), the Hospitallers' fortress of the Homs Gap; the Citadel of Aleppo among the oldest and largest castles, on a mound used since the third millennium BC |
| The refugee crisis | The largest since the Second World War — 6.8 million refugees abroad and 7 million displaced within at the peak, more than half the people; and the largest return of the century in 2025–26, 3.5 million by the President's count of 23 September 2026 |
| The norias of Hama | The 17 wooden waterwheels of the Orontes, the largest 20 m across (the al-Muhammadiyya of 1361), turning since the Byzantine centuries — the largest of their kind; on UNESCO's tentative list |
| The oldest dam | The Qattinah dam of Lake Homs on the Orontes, the oldest working dam of the world by the tradition (c. 1300 BC by the story; rebuilt 1938); the Tabqa Dam of 1973, Lake Assad's, the country's largest work |
| The earthquakes | Aleppo's of 1138 among the deadliest in the record (230,000 by the medieval counts, doubted since); the Turkey–Syria earthquake of 6 February 2023 the deadliest of the region's century (about 59,000 in all, about 6,000 in Syria) |
| The Dead Cities | The 700 abandoned settlements of the limestone massif between Aleppo and Idlib (the 1st to the 7th century), the best-preserved rural landscape of late antiquity — the World Heritage of 2011, the war's front of 2012–20 |
| The Hejaz Railway | The Damascus station of 1908 and the pilgrims' line of 1,300 km to Medina, the last great work of the Ottomans, sabotaged by Lawrence's Arabs of 1917–18; the narrow gauge still to Zabadani |
| Palmyra and Zenobia | The caravan city of the desert and its queen who defied Rome (270–73); the Temple of Bel of 32 and the Arch blown up by ISIS on 30 August 2015, Khaled al-Asaad, 82, its guardian of 40 years, beheaded 18 August 2015 for refusing to say where the treasures were |
| The Assad decades | 54 years of one family (13 November 1970 – 8 December 2024), the longest rule of any Arab republic; Sednaya, "the human slaughterhouse" of Amnesty's report of 2017, opened 8 December 2024; Bashar al-Assad sentenced to death in absentia on 11 August 2026 |
| The first president at the UN | Ahmed al-Sharaa's speech of 24 September 2025, the first by a Syrian head of state at the General Assembly since 1967, and his second of 23 September 2026; the first Syrian president received at the White House (10 November 2025) |
| The golden hamster | All the pet hamsters of the world descend from a mother and her litter dug out of a wheat field near Aleppo in April 1930 by Israel Aharoni — the Syrian hamster of the laboratories and the cages |
| The words of Damascus | Damask cloth, Damascus steel, the damson plum and the Damask rose — the city's name in the world's languages; the Aleppo pepper, the Aleppo soap and the Aleppo pine; "Syria" itself from Assyria by the philologists |
| The chemical file | The Ghouta attack of 21 August 2013, the deadliest chemical attack since Halabja (about 1,400 dead by the U.S. count), and the OPCW's removal of 1,300 metric tons of declared agents in 2014, the largest ever; the destruction of what was hidden begun 3 September 2026 by the new state's word |
Frequently asked questions
What is the official name of Syria?
The Syrian Arab Republic — al-Jumhuriyah al-Arabiyah as-Suriyah in Arabic — the name the Ba'ath state took in 1961 and the one the Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025 kept after the fall of Bashar al-Assad on 8 December 2024; Syria (Suriya) the short form, SYR the code. The name is Greek: Herodotus' "Syria" was most likely a clipping of "Assyria," and the Arabs called the land al-Sham, the Levant, "the left" of the Hejaz — the name Bilad al-Sham that Ottoman Syria kept until the French Mandate of 1920 drew the borders of today. Independent since 17 April 1946 (Evacuation Day, when the last French soldiers left), a founding member of the United Nations and the Arab League in 1945, a republic that has been the Kingdom of Syria (1920), the French Mandate's Syrian Republic (1930–46), the United Arab Republic with Egypt (1958–61) and the Ba'ath's Syrian Arab Republic (1963–2024), it is a country of 185,180 km² and about 25 million people between Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon, with Damascus, one of the oldest cities on Earth, its capital; since 29 January 2025 a state in transition under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the Constitutional Declaration of March 2025 giving it five years to write a permanent constitution and vote.
What is the capital of Syria?
Damascus (Dimashq; al-Sham to the Syrians) — the capital since the Mandate's Syrian Republic and the seat of every state before it back to the Umayyad caliphs, who ruled from here from 661 to 750 and built the Great Mosque of 705 to 715 on the site of the temple of Jupiter and the church of John the Baptist; the Old City inside the Roman walls, with the Straight Street of St. Paul's road, the Souq al-Hamidiyah and the Azm Palace, has been a World Heritage site since 1979 (on the List in Danger since 2013), and the city is counted among the oldest continuously inhabited on Earth, settled by the third millennium BC on the Barada river and its Ghouta oasis under Mount Qasioun. About 2.5 million people live in the governorate of the city and about 5 million with the Rif Dimashq suburbs of Douma, Darayya and Jaramana by the estimates, the count uncertain after 13 years of war and the flight and return of millions. Aleppo (Halab) in the north, the largest city before 2011 with about 2 million people, the trading city of the Citadel and the souks that the battle of 2012–16 wrecked, is the second; then Homs (about 800,000; the third, its old center gutted by the siege of 2011–14), Hama (about 700,000; the norias of the Orontes), Latakia (about 500,000; the port and the Alawite coast), Deir ez-Zor on the Euphrates, Raqqa (the caliphate's capital of 2014–17), Hasakah and Qamishli of the Kurdish northeast, Tartus, Idlib, Daraa (the cradle of the uprising of 2011) and al-Suwayda of the Druze mountain. The People's Palace on Qasioun is the presidency; the People's Assembly sits on the Salhiyah; the Umayyad Mosque holds the shrine of the Baptist's head, with Saladin's tomb at its wall.
How big is Syria, and how many people live there?
185,180 km² (71,500 sq mi) by the UN's count, 187,437 km² by the Factbook's with the Israeli-held Golan Heights of about 1,200 km² (occupied since 1967, annexed by Israel in 1981, recognized as Israel's by the United States in 2019 and by Colombia in 2026 and by no one else) — the 87th country of the world, a little larger than Uruguay or the U.S. state of Washington, with 193 km of Mediterranean coast between Turkey and Lebanon, borders of about 2,250 km (Turkey 822 km, Iraq 605, Lebanon 375, Jordan 375, Israel 76 by the Geography count; 2,363 in all by the Factbook's) and the Euphrates crossing it from northwest to southeast; the coastal plain and its mountains, the Orontes valley, the plateau of Damascus and Aleppo, the Jazira of the northeast and the Syrian Desert (the Badiya) that takes more than half the land. No one knows the population for certain: the last census (2004) counted 17.9 million, about 21 million lived here in 2010, and the war drove more than 13 million from their homes — 6.8 million abroad at the peak and 7 million within. The World Bank puts the resident population at 25.6 million for 2025 (the UN's estimate 26.0 million, the Factbook's about 24 million; the counts differ and are all stated), a young country of median age about 24 with a third under 15, and the returns since the fall of Assad — about 1.3 million refugees by the UNHCR's count of December 2025, 1.5 million by the IMF's of mid-2026, about 2 million of the internally displaced, 3.5 million in all by the President's count to the United Nations on 23 September 2026 — are the fastest movement of people the country has seen; about 4 million Syrians remain abroad by the counts, in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Germany, Iraq and Egypt. About 118 people to the square kilometer overall, the coast and the west crowded, the Badiya all but empty.
What are the highest and lowest points of Syria?
Mount Hermon (Jabal al-Shaykh, "the mountain of the old man," for its white head), 2,814 m (9,232 ft) on the border with Lebanon at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon range — the highest point of Syria and of the Levant, snow-covered most of the year, the summit ridge a military post: the Israeli-held part since 1967 stretches to the peak Israel took on 8 December 2024 when it moved its forces beyond the ceasefire line of 1974 into the buffer zone, and Damascus wants the line of 1974 back. The coastal range (Jabal al-Nusayriyah, the Alawite mountains) rises to 1,562 m at Nabi Yunis above Latakia; Jabal al-Druze in the south to 1,803 m at Tell Qeni; Mount Qasioun stands 1,151 m over Damascus with the city's lights below; and the Kurd Mountain, Jabal Abdulaziz, Jabal Bishri and the Palmyrene ranges break the plateau and the desert. The lowest point is about 200 m below sea level at the shore of Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee) on the Golan by the Factbook's count — Syrian land Israel holds — with the Yarmouk gorge beside it; the Mediterranean shore stands at zero, the Euphrates leaves for Iraq at al-Bukamal at about 170 m, Damascus lies at about 690 m, Aleppo at 380 m, Palmyra at 400 m in the desert and the mean elevation of the country is about 514 m. The rain falls on the west — up to 1,200 mm on the coastal range, about 200 mm at Damascus, under 100 in the Badiya — and the Euphrates, the Orontes, the Khabur and the Barada carry the water the country lives on, the Euphrates alone four-fifths of it by the counts.
What currency does Syria use?
The Syrian pound (ISO code SYP; LS or £S; the lira in the street), of 100 piastres — since 3 January 2026 the new pound of the redenomination, each 100 old pounds exchanged for one new (the old notes taken in until 30 July 2026), in the notes of 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 first and 1, 5 and 1,000 after, printed abroad by the reports and unveiled on 29 December 2025 by the Central Bank of Syria (1953), under Governor Abdulkader Husrieh since April 2025. The pound was 47 to the U.S. dollar in March 2011 and about 15,000 by 2024 on the black market that everyone used; the new pound opened at 111 to the dollar on 1 January 2026 and stood at about 120 in September 2026 by the market's counts (the government's diesel arithmetic of 18 September made 115 pounds US$0.94), the dollar legal again since 2025 after the Assad state's ban. Inflation, 129.9% in 2023 and 72.1% in 2024 by the World Bank's count, fell to 11.5% in 2025 with the fall of the regime and the end of the sanctions — the U.S. order of 30 June 2025, the Caesar Act's repeal on 18 December 2025, the European Union's lifting of 28 May 2025 — and "picked up considerably" in 2026 by the IMF's statement of 5 August, on the fuel and food that the Iran war of February 2026 made dear and the wage rises; the fuel price rises of 13 and 14 September 2026 (diesel to 175 new pounds a liter) set off the widest protests since the fall of Assad and were cut back on 18 September. The clocks keep UTC+3 all year; Syria drives on the right.
Who governs Syria?
A transitional state under one man and a written declaration: Ahmed al-Sharaa — born in Riyadh on 29 October 1982, the "Abu Mohammad al-Jolani" who founded the Nusra Front in 2012, broke with al-Qaeda in 2016, led Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and ruled Idlib from 2017, and marched from Idlib to Damascus in the 11 days of 27 November to 8 December 2024 that ended the 54 years of the Assads — has been President of the Republic since 29 January 2025, when the Victory Conference of the factions' commanders named him, dissolved the constitution of 2012, the Ba'ath Party, the People's Assembly, the old army and the armed groups, and gave him the transition. The Constitutional Declaration of 13 March 2025 sets a five-year transition to 2030, puts the executive in the President, who appoints the 23 ministers himself (there is no prime minister and no vice president), makes Islamic jurisprudence the main source of legislation and the President a Muslim, and gives Syria a People's Assembly of 210 seats for 30 months: 140 chosen by electoral colleges on 5 October 2025 and in the rounds of 23 October 2025, 17 March 2026 (Raqqa) and 24 May 2026 (Kobani and Hasakah), 70 appointed by the President on 1 July 2026, the Assembly seated on 12 July 2026 with Abdul Hamid al-Awak its Speaker (99 of 205 votes) and a Supreme Constitutional Court under Issam al-Khalif since 11 July 2026; Suwayda's seats are still empty. The government of 29 March 2025 is Asaad al-Shaibani at foreign affairs, Murhaf Abu Qasra at defense, Anas Khattab at interior, Mohammed Yisr Barnieh at finance, Mohammad Nidal al-Shaar at the economy, Mazhar al-Wais at justice and 17 others, reshuffled on 9 May 2026 when the President's brother Maher lost the presidency's secretariat. The state's hand reached the Kurdish northeast in January 2026 (the offensive of 13–30 January and the integration agreement of 30 January; the SDF dissolved 25 August 2026 and its commander Mazloum Abdi made a presidential adviser) and not yet the Druze of Suwayda, where Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri's National Guard holds out; Israel holds the Golan and the buffer zone it entered on 8 December 2024, the United States lifted its sanctions in 2025–26 and took Syria off its terrorism list on 24 August 2026, and the elections that end the transition are promised for the years to 2030. The critics' case — one man's rule, the massacres of the coast (March 2025) and Suwayda (July 2025) only partly punished, an assembly chosen by colleges and a president — and the government's — a state rebuilt from nothing, the guns gathered, 3.5 million people home and the sanctions gone — are both stated.
Explore all general-knowledge topics and the A-to-Z lists.
We Value Your Opinion Comments