These contributions are by individuals with firsthand insights into Syria and its emergence in the world as the New Syria.
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Syrian soccer fans watch World Cup matches on giant screens at the Damascus Fairgrounds in Damascus, Syria, on June 11, 2026. (Rami Alsayed-NurPhoto via Getty Images)The Quiet Miracles of Ordinary Life in New Syria
Line Sergie Attar returned to Syria in the summer and found something new: the quiet miracle of ordinary life. “On a July afternoon, I stood on the edge of al-Hatab Square in the old city of Aleppo, filming, transfixed. A group of boys was kicking a soccer ball around the square. One kicked it out into the street, out of the frame, where it bounced off a parked car. Another ball appeared immediately from the other side. They shouted, laughed, and kept playing. It was an ordinary scene, but I couldn’t look away.”
Read more at: TIME -
Syria: A Blueprint for a New Path in Conflict Resolution
Wassim Nasr, prominent French journalist, analyst, and Senior Research Fellow at The Soufran Center, examines how the political and military evolution of Syria’s former revolutionary stronghold in Idlib, and the subsequent rise of Syria’s new authorities following the fall of the Assad regime, may offer a new framework for conflict resolution in regions affected by jihadist insurgencies.
Read more at: LEVANT 24 -
“Al-Sharaa is governing for everyone”
Michael Arizanti explains that since December 8, Ahmed al-Sharaa has done nothing but govern. No revenge. No purges. No theocracy. Just politics – steady, calculated, and deliberate. He says that from day one, Al-Sharaa’s message has been the same: Syria is for all Syrians.
Read more at: Michael Arizanti@ColdBrief -
Hala Gorani on the Women Rebuilding Syria
In her May column, Hala Gorani reflects on meeting the women architects rebuilding Aleppo’s war-ravaged old city, and how their quiet, community-driven efforts offer a more meaningful vision for Syria’s future.
Read more at: VOGUE ARABIA -
Damascus : a city tired from outside, alive from within
By Zeina Yagan
After landing at Damascus International Airport, and while being transferred to the airport building, I could not hold back my tears.
Am I really in Damascus?
From the very first glance, I felt a deep sadness. The airport simply does not suit you, Damascus. You deserve a better one.
And yet, amid this feeling of heaviness, there was warmth. The people working inside the airport were highly professional, generous, and smiling. They were doing their best to leave a warm first impression on Syrians coming back home. In that moment, longing prevailed over everything else. Read More …
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Catharsis and Closure: The Role of Collective Grief
Everywhere you look in Syria, people have tears in their eyes. This widespread, visceral crying witnessed across the Syrian population following the liberation from the Assad regime is more than just a reaction to a political shift; it is a profound sociological and psychological phenomenon.
Read more at: Line (Lyn) Khatib, Radio Free Syria… -
About the Kurds by Dr Zaher Sahloul
The decree issued by President Ahmed al-Sharaa is a historic decree, similar in importance to the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The Proclamation has the potential to end discrimination against the brave and dignified Kurdish people, who represent an essential component of the Syrian fabric.
Read More at: Dr Zaher Sahloul… -
The Peace by Chocolate Story
After the bombing of my father’s Damascus chocolate factory during the Syrian civil war, my family fled to Lebanon as refugees, eventually moving to Antigonish, Canada. Initially I struggled to settle into small-town Canadian life caught between following my dream to become a doctor and preserving my family’s chocolate-making legacy. After successfully establishing our chocolate business with the support of the community, we now sponsor peace-building projects around the world. Our story is all about the importance of peace. Without peace, there is no life.
Read More at: Tariq Hadhad, CEO Peace by Chocolate…
Peace by Chocolate movie trailer… -
The New Syrian Model
It is tempting to read what is emerging in Damascus as a straightforward turn toward religious governance; as if Syria is finally resolving a long tension between secularism and Islam in favor of the latter. But this reading misses the deep entanglement between the secular and the religious in Syria, not over the past 50 years, but for too many centuries. What the new Syrian government is constructing is not the defeat of the secular by the religious. It is, rather, the latest iteration of that entanglement — and perhaps the first authentic one in decades.
Read More at: Line Khatib, Radio Free Syria… -
Seeds Against Bombs: scenes from Syria’s agricultural resilience and revival
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. “A hundred years ago, our grandparents used to save seeds from their own crops and replant them the next season, generation after generation. This concept has always existed—we’re just reviving it. It’s our way of responding to crisis and heading towards food sovereignty,” seed farmer, Ibrahim al-Youssef, explained.
Read More at: Philippe Pernot, Syria Direct… -
Easter Greetings
In his Easter greetings, Dr Sahloul describes how the Christian and Muslim faiths have been integrated harmoniously for centuries in Syrian life. He explains that in his native city of Homs, “the sound of Muslim call for prayer intertwines with the sound of church bells. Local TV and radio stations air Christian songs. Muslim and Christian youth perform the local folkloric Aradha, chanting mythical songs about Homs, the city of peace and den of lions.”
Read more at: Dr Zaher Sahloul…
