Overview
- New AFP-based accounts describe Iranian forces and Hezbollah quitting Syria on December 5, 2024, emptying diplomatic posts and evacuating thousands before Damascus fell and Assad fled to Russia on December 8.
- Damascus and other cities are staging large anniversary events, while the Kurdish-led administration in the northeast has banned gatherings citing heightened activity by terror cells.
- An Alawite religious leader, Ghazal Ghazal, urged a boycott and a general strike, reflecting deep mistrust after deadly sectarian violence this year in coastal Alawite areas and in Druze-majority Sweida.
- Interim leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has eased Syria’s isolation, won sanctions relief and Gulf support, and says the transitional period will run four more years to build institutions and put a new constitution to a vote before elections.
- Returns of displaced Syrians are rising, yet UN agencies report 16.5 million people need aid in 2025, security remains fragmented outside core areas, and reconstruction costs are estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.