🧵 Harried by government security campaigns, IS appears unable to regain territorial control in Syria, instead working to maintain visibility through limited operations while betting on the failure of the country’s transition. 🔗 bit.ly/4gRJeRD

🧵 Driven by high property prices, Daraa residents are building homes beyond the planned boundaries of cities and towns, creating new neighborhoods without basic infrastructure and presenting already overstretched municipalities with a dilemma. 🔗 bit.ly/4wdHg2w

🧵 The living and the dead are coming home to Afrin as displaced families return with the remains of their loved ones, fulfilling a long-held wish to lay them to rest in their native soil. 🔗 bit.ly/43PAlR7

🧵 Israeli incursions and violations are making life increasingly untenable in southern Syrian border villages, as residents curtail their movements, suspend reconstruction and investment, and consider leaving if they have alternatives. 🔗 bit.ly/4eBKnKx

🧵 The Revolutionary Youth Movement and Syrian Democratic Forces continue to recruit minors in northeastern Syria, despite past commitments and an integration agreement with Damascus. 🔗 bit.ly/4vgzGEa

🧵 As Syria charts a new course and transitional justice efforts proceed, advocates see a unique opportunity to reform the country’s nationality law and address statelessness. 🔗 bit.ly/4xmgTbZ

🧵 Caught between a seemingly absent Syrian government and a growing Israeli presence, Mount Hermon’s Druze villages are waiting for a clarity neither Damascus nor Tel Aviv seems willing to provide. 🔗 bit.ly/4x8mDG7

📣 SYRIA DIRECT IS HIRING! (Deadline extended) Syria Direct’s recruitment process for the positions of Arabic Editor and Arabic Reporter has been extended to June 15, 2026. Learn more and apply: bit.ly/4wnW6Ev

🧵 Soil salinization is a complex and expanding crisis in rural Raqqa, where fields are becoming unusable and farmers have limited means to respond. 🔗 bit.ly/4vbkckr

🧵 Following Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s reshuffle of governors and ministers, questions have emerged over whether the appointments reflect growing public discontent or signal a preference for trust and security control over participation and competence. 🔗 bit.ly/4nuOSdX

📣 SYRIA DIRECT IS HIRING! We are currently recruiting for the following positions: - Social Media & Multimedia Coordinator - Finance & Admin Expert - Programs Manager - English Editor - Arabic Editor - Arabic Reporter Deadline to apply is May 24th. For more details: bit.ly/4wnW6Ev

🧵 As the trial of former Assad regime security official Atef Najib moves forward, some lawyers and human rights experts warn that it may be premature in the absence of a legal framework for transitional justice. 🔗 bit.ly/4eGIIFi

🧵 Despite progress in talks between Suwayda education officials and Damascus to secure recognition of upcoming baccalaureate exams, students are wary of a repeat of last year, when thousands were left with unrecognized certificates amid an ongoing rift with the government. 🔗 bit.ly/4w1oR9L

🧵 As Syrian Jews and their allies in the diaspora work to reestablish ties and revive Syria’s ancient Jewish heritage, politics bubble beneath the surface. One thorny question—whether and how Israel fits into the picture—has opened a divide. 🔗 bit.ly/3QyAXas

The first public trial of Assad regime officials began in Damascus on Sunday. Atef Najib, Daraa’s political security chief in 2011, appeared in court. Bashar and Maher al-Assad will be tried in absentia. Read our 2025 profile of Najib: syriadirect.org/who-is-atef-...

🧵 A proposal to rebuild destroyed neighborhoods in eastern Damascus through private investment and partial compensation for property owners has angered and alarmed residents who consider it “theft” and disguised expropriation. 🔗 bit.ly/4cUYBX9

🧵 As stateless Syrian Kurds begin applying for citizenship under a recent presidential decree, hopes of restoring long-denied rights are tempered by bureaucratic hurdles and past disappointments. 🔗 bit.ly/4edlvtT

🧵 Under pressure and death threats, a number of journalists and activists have fled Suwayda in recent months as the space for free expression narrows in the Druze-majority southern province. 🔗 bit.ly/4sb9w3A

🧵 Germany kept a report used to justify post-Assad deportations to Syria confidential for nearly a year before quietly releasing it last week. It appears to contain inaccuracies. 🔗 bit.ly/4v1WfwA

🧵 While not a direct target of the escalating conflict between Israel, the US, Iran and Hezbollah, southern Syria is feeling its fallout—from drone debris to increased patrols by occupying forces. 🔗 bit.ly/3PgzoNG

🧵 On the second anniversary of the Syrian revolution since the fall of the Assad regime, have its earliest aims—freedom, justice, dignity and the rule of law—been achieved, or is the journey far from over? 🔗 bit.ly/4sYuNOJ

🧵 After months of deadlock, a prisoner swap between Damascus and Suwayda opened a “new” negotiating channel, but is there a way forward amid internal divisions and struggles over representation? 🔗 bit.ly/4sq9Ax9

🧵 As Alawites mark one year since the massacres in Syria’s coastal regions, residents of Baniyas say fear persists, wounds remain unhealed and political demands unmet. 🔗bit.ly/4sF1wbC

🧵 An inaccessible public transportation system and degraded infrastructure pose daily challenges to disabled Syrians, isolating them and preventing their freedom of movement in an “unspoken form of social exclusion.” 🔗 bit.ly/4bjYl1X

🧵 Israeli aircraft sprayed large areas of Syria’s southern Quneitra province with herbicides at least three times in late January, killing crops, devastating farmers and damaging trees. 🔗 bit.ly/4l9ZKN9

🧵 Even as Syria suffers an acute water crisis, thousands of cubic meters of groundwater are flowing into the global market in the form of olive oil, an export that represents both national pride and a silent depletion of resources. 🔗 bit.ly/4sbh7zi

🧵 As the Syrian government shuts down Deir e-Zor’s informal refineries, a local industry risks collapse even as nearby communities are likely to reap health and environmental benefits. 🔗 bit.ly/4aVv3GW

🧵 As Damascus and the SDF inch towards integration, is northeastern Syria heading for unified state institutions, “complementary integration,” or a revival of divided influence? 🔗bit.ly/4qDb3OP

🧵 Kurds in northeastern Syria are cautiously waiting to see what comes next as Damascus and the SDF take their first steps towards a fraught integration. 🔗 bit.ly/3OanUL6

📣 Syria Direct is hiring a new Executive Director! To learn more about the position, please see the link below. The deadline to apply is March 4. www.linkedin.com/posts/syriad...

🧵 A new integration agreement between Damascus and the SDF is underway in northeastern Syria, but major obstacles remain—from diverging interpretations of the deal to the deep influence of the PKK-linked “Qandil current.” 🔗 bit.ly/3M61MAV

🧵 As Raqqa embarks on a future without the SDF, the northeastern Syrian city faces the delicate work of reintegrating former fighters and repairing social fractures left by years of shifting rule. 🔗 bit.ly/4c9inOB

Remains in the rubble: Integrating rights of the missing into Syria’s reconstruction policies ✍️ @mansouromari.bsky.social

🧵 As rubble removal, recycling and reconstruction operations continue across Syria, there is an urgent need to regulate these processes in a way that accounts for human remains and the rights of victims and their families, Mansour al-Omari writes. 🔗 bit.ly/4t368Ju

🧵 Encircled by government forces and without basic services, residents of Kurdish-majority Kobani fear a return to the city’s darkest days as the end of a fragile ceasefire approaches. 🔗 bit.ly/4t4eXmz

🧵 The SDF’s sudden withdrawal has ushered in a new reality for Syrians in Deir e-Zor and Raqqa, where many are optimistic despite uncertainty about the days ahead. 🔗 bit.ly/49QPuUG

🧵 A four-day ceasefire marks the latest effort to integrate SDF and Syrian government forces and sidestep a dangerous military showdown, but its success hinges on each side’s willingness and ability to commit to the political process. 🔗 bit.ly/3YUyJ62

🧵 A financial settlement between sanctioned Syrian business tycoon Muhammad Hamsho and the country’s new government has sparked controversy given his deep ties to the Assad regime and role in profiting from the country’s destruction. 🔗 bit.ly/3Zbgauj

🧵 This week’s escalation in Aleppo city comes amid a deepening political crisis between Damascus and the SDF, particularly after the latest round of negotiations to implement the March 2025 agreement stalled. 🔗 bit.ly/4jBRMLR

🧵 A year of false starts, bloodshed, shifting balances of power and foreign intervention has produced a complicated landscape in Druze-majority Suwayda, one in which the voices calling for secession and self-rule are growing louder. 🔗 bit.ly/4pOn9VX

🧵 Once scattered and safeguarded abroad, Syria’s native seeds are taking root once more, part of an organic revival aimed at restoring the country’s agricultural heritage. 🔗 bit.ly/49iU7HZ

🧵 The first year of the “new Syria” brought relative economic stability and a marked improvement in the exchange rate of the pound, but economic burdens still weigh on Syrians. Has the cost of living crisis improved, or is it deepening? 🔗 bit.ly/453Kiex

🧵 As dozens of mass graves come to light, Syrians face the daunting task of identifying the dead and bringing closure to the families of some of the country’s more than 160,000 missing people. 🔗 bit.ly/4p6K3H2

شهد العام الأول لـ"سوريا الجديدة" استقراراً نسبياً وتحسناً ملحوظاً في سعر صرف الليرة، إلا أن الأعباء الاقتصادية ما تزال تثقل كاهل السوريين، وسط سؤال لا إجابة حاسمة له حتى الآن: هل أصبحت الحياة المعيشية أفضل من العام الماضي أم أن الأزمة المعيشية تتفاقم؟ bit.ly/3YhOnIg @syriadirect.bsky.social

Families of detainees killed under torture in regime prisons mark the first anniversary of Assad’s fall with mixed emotions, a joy that remains incomplete without justice and accountability.

🧵 As Syrians mark the first anniversary of the fall of Assad on December 8, 2024, women who survived regime detention warn their ordeal did not end when they were released. For many, society remains a second prison. 🔗 bit.ly/3XGDdfW

🧵 In the weeks after Assad fell on December 8, 2024, Khalid al-Ahmad* traveled from Raqqa to Damascus for the first time in his life. There, he was caught on video participating in celebrations. When he returned home he was arrested, held for three months without charge. 🔗 bit.ly/3XywyVb

🧵 In northeastern Syria, a growing community of artists—dancers, musicians, filmmakers—is fighting to preserve the region’s diverse heritage and sustain more than a decade of cultural revival. 🔗 bit.ly/4pcn3XE

🧵 Olive yields fell across Syria this year amid the worst drought in 60 years. In southern Daraa province, the harvest was 68% percent lower than in 2024, and 86% percent lower than in 2011. 🔗 bit.ly/4io97ax