2025-08-13
Al-Raya Newspaper: What Does America
Want from Syria?
Since the outbreak of the Sham Revolution at the beginning of March 2011, until the end of al-Assad's rule on December 8, 2024, America's goals regarding Syria were clear, and they were to prevent the export of the revolution and the non-fall of the Syrian regime while carrying out a cosmetic operation on it. These goals have not changed until this moment, but the changes were only in the means and methods, which were originally found to serve the goals, and if they lost their role, it was necessary to change them. As for the issue of America's influence in Syria, it was not a subject of discussion, as the international conflict had disappeared and everyone was under the American line, except for some attempts to only create noise, not conflict, and Russia and others were only papers and tools to achieve the American strategy.
As soon as the American openness occurred, the European Union lifted its sanctions on Syria, including lifting restrictions on the financial and energy sectors and removing the Syrian Central Bank from the sanctions list. In Russia, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin indicated that Russia would continue to negotiate with the Syrian government on the status of Russian military bases in Syria. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Jewish entity, Gideon Saar, said after al-Shara’s meeting with Trump that Tel Aviv wants good relations with the new Syrian regime, in a positive message to Trump that may indicate the occupation’s desire to conclude a deal with Syria under his patronage. On the other hand, Barack proposed conducting negotiations between the occupation and Syria to conclude a non-aggression agreement.
Rather, the real conflict was between the Ummah and the entire West, led by America, and Congress provided millions of dollars to support the Syrian fighters who were fighting the Assad regime and established two rooms for them in the north and south and linked the revolutionary movement to them and used many countries, organizations, and individuals for that.
Syria is considered a major outlet for West Asia to the Mediterranean Sea and a link between the Arabian Gulf region and Europe by land and sea and a gateway for transporting energy from the Gulf region and Iran to Europe. The flat geographical nature of Syria "almost free of natural barriers such as mountains" makes building oil and gas pipeline networks easier and less expensive than Turkey, which has a mountainous nature, aspiring to be a center for energy transfer to Europe, and therefore Syria constitutes a transit point and a natural passage for energy resources in the Middle East "Iran and the Arabian Gulf region" to Europe.
Syria also possesses important natural gas fields, and it is a region with a historical and colonial relationship and view due to its Islamic history, its role, and its relationship with Europe, in addition to its future outlook, and what is mentioned in it from narrations related to the Levant, its virtue, and its role in change. Therefore, the entire West looks at the Levant region with a different and distinct view from others, even if all Muslim countries carry the same principle, but the Levant is distinguished by different characteristics. For these reasons, the United States was interested in the Syrian revolution, as well as the nature of its revolution, which differed completely from the Arab Spring revolutions, as it raised the banner of the Messenger of God ﷺ and called for the application of Islam and produced movements carrying Islamic ideas, and from all countries of the world, Muslims raced to support the Sham Revolution.
When Bashar fell, America wanted to preserve the regime even if its head fell, so it assigned the task to Turkey, and before that, it had given it a large role in Syria, until the task came to Turkey to choose some of those whom America considers its enemies, and even rulings and international demands were issued against them, but it seems that the preparation of Turkey was from a long time ago, and the relations between it and al-Jolani are somewhat old, and the relationship between them and the military support and Turkish embrace after the revolution are no secret, and Turkey's role is known, no one is ignorant of it.
After the fall of Bashar, things changed and events accelerated, and many differences appeared in Syria, whether related to the Syrian interior or the exterior. Here, there is no doubt that the vision differed and the plans diverged between the demands of the revolutionary incubator and America, the owner of influence, and a new player, which is the Jewish entity, but the final say remains with America. So what does America want?
America's demands from the new administration are many and varied, some of which relate to the Syrian interior and some of which relate to its exterior:
As for what is related to the interior, at the head of which is Islam, the constitution, the civil form, the small ethnicities and their role in governance and administration and their relationship with Damascus, the form of government, federalism, the formation of the army, the integration of the revolutionaries, controlling weapons and restricting them to the state, the issue of foreign fighters, the expulsion of some of them, their deportation, and the exile of Palestinian fighters, where the Ministry of Defense announced "the integration of 3,500 foreign fighters into the newly formed 84th Division. America's position changed, as its envoy Barack stated that it is better to keep foreign fighters under the umbrella of the state instead of excluding them, to prevent them from joining jihadist groups."
As well as privatization and investment and the role of American companies, especially with regard to oil and gas, the Syrian government signed an agreement worth $7 billion on May 29 with international companies in the energy sector, including UCC Holding, Power International, Orbacon Holding of Qatar, Kaylon GES Enerji Yatirimlari, and Cengiz Enerji Turkitean.
As for what is related to external demands, there are demands related to normalization with the Jewish entity and not posing a danger to it and harmonizing with the Abraham Accords, and it was stated in an article for Al Jazeera under the title: (What does America want from the new Syria?) "However, the meeting between Trump and al-Shara was not the only development from Trump towards Syria, as the American president announced his intention to gradually lift the American sanctions on Syria. Trump described those sanctions as "brutal" and "obstructive," stressing that the time has come for "Syria to rise" again. This announcement came after more than a decade of strict sanctions that completely isolated Syria from the global financial system. It is clear that Washington has adopted a new approach in dealing with the new Syrian government, moving from a policy of isolation and punishment to a policy of conditional engagement and cautious support, as American officials have expressed their willingness to work with the transitional Damascus authorities if they adhere to the path of political settlement and take into account international demands."
Faced with these many and varied demands, we find the new administration largely consistent with America's demands, but rather shows it affection, acceptance, and submission, and participated in negotiations with the Jews and showed its humiliating submission in the Suwaida file and before it the foreign fighters and the revolutionary incubator.
In conclusion, the United States was able to preserve the regime and replaced an agent with another agent, to do what his predecessor did not do, so do the revolutionaries realize who they are rallying behind? And do they realize the manipulation and intellectual misinformation of the al-Jolani group and those behind him with the arguments in the Levant about the necessities of reality and the available licenses; the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and other things that are put forward?
By: Professor Abdul Hakim Abdullah
Source: Al-Raya Newspaper
