Latest news with #SyrianWar
Al Jazeera
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Al Jazeera
BACK
DigiDocs BACK It's a recurring nightmare likely shared by many Syrians who fled their homeland during the war – a mirage of home and hope, slipping away. Directed by Yazan Rabee, BACK is a short documentary that follows those who return in their sleep to ghostly hometowns, hunted down by menacing forces. Blending intimate testimony with striking visuals, BACK explores how political violence becomes embedded in the subconscious, especially for those who long for home from life in exile. But as Rabee asks, did the nightmare really begin in 2012, with the uprising against president Bashar al-Assad? Or did the trauma take root decades earlier, during the brutal reign of Bashar's father?
Irish Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
‘KatKot' chocolate and ‘Ugarit Cola': What life in Syria was like under US sanctions
I didn't believe in life after war until December 2024, when the dictatorship regime in Syria fell. Political prisoners were freed, exiled citizens reunited with their families and heartbroken mothers were able to have closure, whether hugging their children again or accepting their loss after years of vanishing into thin air. The collective glee wave that burst in the country was enough to illuminate the world. Syrians who hadn't seen a good day for many years could finally dare to hope. Last week brought another turning point for the country as Donald Trump announced the lifting of long-imposed US sanctions on Syria . Those sanctions that were supposed to punish the previous government for terror-related actions ended up punishing the Syrians, choking the last bit of air they had. All while Bashar al-Assad and his family lived a life of indulgence before running away with millions of dollars to Russia. The sanctions were imposed in the 1970s, long before the war. I used to hear stories from my parents about how life necessities like tissues or diapers were limited to poor quality local production, or smuggled from neighbouring countries like Lebanon. By the time I moved to live in Syria in 2003, things had improved. Syrians also got used to working around the sanctions. No McDonald's or Starbucks? No problem, we love our Chicken Shawarma sandwiches and cardamom-spiced coffee. No Kitkat or Coca Cola? We have KatKot and Ugarit Cola. No ATM machines? Cash is the king, always! [ Celebrations in Damascus after Donald Trump's sudden announcement of end to sanctions on Syria Opens in new window ] Studying Information Technology Engineering in Syria put me at the core of the technology sanctions – software companies, mainly developed by American companies such as Apple and Microsoft, were not allowed to exist or trade in Syria. A whole commercial neighbourhood in Damascus called Albahsa was dedicated to selling pirated software, which my colleagues and I used for studying and working. Most of the internet was out of reach, whether by the government for political reasons, or by America for sanctions, so we used a virtual private network (VPN) that could change our location from Syria to anywhere else and allow us access. READ MORE Even after travelling abroad, the sanctions followed me everywhere. I was banned from taking a technical exam for an Oracle certificate after paying and studying for months because the website failed to mention the list of sanctioned countries. I was asked to leave the exam centre in Cairo after I showed my Syrian passport with my only valid Egyptian tourist visa back then. Another time, I wasn't eligible for a Google scholarship. This time, Syria was mentioned clearly on the website. In a job interview, a white man explained to me the role of a compliance data analyst and how I would need to detect and stop unauthorised user access from sanctioned countries. 'Do you understand what I mean?' He said in a serious tone. I locked eyes with him, wondering if he had read my resume at all. 'Of course! I'm from Syria. I know exactly what you mean.' Needless to say, the interview didn't go much further after the awkwardness I created by declaring my Syrian identity. But when I finally got a job offer from an American company in Dublin, I had to undergo an extra background security check. Through a mandatory training session for all employees, I learned how I'm not allowed to work with anyone in Syria (or the other countries on that sanctioned list). All of this was tolerable, to me and other Syrians, but sanctions didn't stop. It felt like the more ways we learned to survive the sanctions regime, the more creative ways it found to punish us. Medicine was limited or out of reach. Cancer treatments were unavailable. Donations were hard to deliver. Financial transactions were not allowed. The currency value was crashing by the day, and nothing was affordable any more. Syrians came together, building their own networks of transactions. In order to send money to Syria, you'd have to find someone inside willing to give that money; in return, you need to pay someone connected to that person outside Syria in euro or US dollars. Medicine was sent through the same network of friends and relatives, sometimes through strangers on social media who were willing to take urgent items to the country. War was one thing, but the sanctions were like the nasty laughter of the bully kid after they trip you over. As I watched Trump take credit for our bright future, I couldn't help but think of all the times I was stopped for 'random' security checks when travelling to the United States during my work with Unicef. I was in New York in 2016 when Trump was running for president, when he said Syrians would be too cold in the US after living all their lives in the desert. I was in the US when he was elected and later ordered a ban on Syrians, among other nationalities, from entering the country. I was there waiting desperately for my husband, who was flying from Ireland to meet me for an emergency. Not knowing if he would be granted entry was an unnecessary stress. Luckily, he was saved by the exemption of holding a UN employee dependent visa. I think of that quote from the Palestinian poet Gassan Kanafani: 'They steal your bread, then give you a crumb of it ... Then they demand you to thank them for their generosity ... O their audacity!' Syrians are still celebrating and dancing again like last December, only this time with American flags and pictures of Trump. But no one really cares about Trump. Syrians are relieved that the sanctions are over and can now live without worrying about their daily bread or electricity. It still amuses me how those people, my people, can find joy, and how this country of layered tragedies can still find hope and hold tight to it. Suad Aldarra's memoir, I Don't Want to Talk About Home, was published in 2022
The Independent
14-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
‘He's a hero': Syrians praise Trump after removal of decades-old sanctions regime
Donald Trump may be facing historically low approval levels at home, but in Syria at least, his popularity is surging. Celebrations broke out in Damascus and other towns across Syria on Tuesday after Trump announced that he would remove decades-old U.S. sanctions on the country. With a stroke of his pen, the president delivered a lifeline to a country decimated by years of war, opening the long-isolated economy to the global market. 'He's a hero inside Syria,' said Qusay Noor, a Syrian journalist. 'Everyone has been celebrating since yesterday until now. The atmosphere in Syria is very exciting.' Some Syrians posted videos from the streets addressing Trump directly as fireworks blasted and people cheered in the background. In his first term, Trump won the admiration of many Syrians when he became the first international leader to take military action against the country's then-leader, Bashar al-Assad, after years of relentless bombing of his own people. Trump ordered the strikes on Assad's forces in 2017 in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun that killed more than 70 people. 'Bashar al-Assad launched a horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,' Trump said in a statement to the nation in April 2016 following the strikes. 'Using a deadly nerve agent, Assad choked out the lives of helpless men, women and children. It was a slow and brutal death for so many. Even beautiful babies were cruelly murdered in this very barbaric attack. No child of God should ever suffer such horror.' Trump's decision to strike Assad came after then-U.S. President Barack Obama had drawn his infamous 'red line' — threatening military action if the Syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people. When that happened, he sought congressional approval for a military strike against Syria, which he did not receive. Trump's popularity surged in anti-government areas of Syria following the strikes. Some eight years later, he is winning praise again for removing sanctions that threatened to hobble Syria's chances of recovery after its long civil war. 'Trump is really different from other presidents. He doesn't play with words,' Abdulkafi al-Hamdo, an English teacher and activist, told The Independent from Aleppo. 'If he says, 'I don't want to help you,' he means that. And if he says, 'I want to help you,' also, he means that,' he added. Hamdo said that while he didn't support Trump's policy on everything, including Gaza and Ukraine, he believed he was better for Syrians than the American presidents that came before and after him. 'We didn't need promises. We didn't need crocodile tears. Tears were drowning us,' he said. 'Trump took action when we needed action.' The United States imposed sanctions on Syria decades ago under the rule of Bashar al-Assad's father, Hafez. More were added after the outbreak of civil war in 2011 in response to the younger Assad's mass killing of civilians in response to an uprising against his government. With the removal of sanctions, Syrians will now be able to import from more countries, transfer money in and out of the country and work with international companies. Trump announced the removal of sanctions on Tuesday during a visit to Saudi Arabia, ahead of a historic meeting with Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who just a few years ago was the leader of the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda. Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which both support Sharaa's government, had urged Washington to lift the sanctions. Trump hailed the Syrian president as a 'young, attractive guy' after the first meeting between the nations' leaders in 25 years, and declared the removal of sanctions as the country's 'chance at greatness'. The meeting marks a remarkable journey for the Syrian leader, who was the leader of a proscribed terror group during Trump's first term and remains on the U.S. terrorist list. Sharaa fought with the group in Iraq after the U.S-led invasion in 2003. He later led the Syrian branch of the terror organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks, before breaking away in 2016 to form what became Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that ousted Assad. Since coming to power in a blistering offensive last year that swept away the Assad dynasty after more than five decades in power, Sharaa has promised to deliver an inclusive government until free and fair elections can be held. Ahead of his meeting with Trump, Sharaa was reportedly eager to offer the U.S. president preferential access to invest in the country in return for removing sanctions. Trump said that he pushed the Syrian leader to normalize relations with Israel. Hamdo, the English teacher and activist, said he believes the removal of sanctions will mean that many Syrian refugees living outside the country will return home. 'Before these sanctions, many people were hesitating to go back. Now, they don't they will not hesitate anymore,' he said.
