Ongoing clashes in Euphrates region
Heavy clashes continue to take place in the western shore of the Eufrates river around Tishreen Dam and Qereqozah bridge. Turkish planes and drones had been targeting SDF positions together with continues attacks of heavy weapons, as new waves of Turkish proxies launched offensives against SDF positions. The civilian vigil that started on January 8th continues, with new convoys arriving every few days. HTS forces recently deployed forces in Jarablus, near the Euphrates river and next to the Turkish border, in convoys that arrived from Turkish territory into the border city.
Preparations for the “national dialog conference”
The HTS aligned preparatory committee for the “national dialog conference” have been holding meetings in Damascus with delegates from different provinces of Syria. Anti-Kurdish statements had been made by the president of the committee, that made clear that neither SDF nor PYD will be invited to the “national dialog conference”. The participation to those meetings has been therefore controlled by that committee, that made public statements after the meetings concerning the provinces of Raqqa, Hasakah and Deir Ezzor calling for the dissolution of SDF. A video was shared on social media allegedly showing an SDF/DAANES delegate being expelled from one of these sessions. ENKS, political rival of PYD and in opposition to SDF, also criticized the decisions of holding those meetings outside SDF controlled territories and with very limited scope of participation.
Efforts to return Iraqi nationals from al-Hol camp
A new group of Iraqis sheltered in Hol Camp, hosting families captured in the campaign against the caliphate of ISIS, returned to their country. This process is part of the joint work by the Autonomous Administration and the Iraqi Parliament’s Committee on Migration, Displacement and Community Reconciliation. The new group, which is the fifth to leave the camp since the beginning of 2025, consists of 618 people (167 families). The Iraqi administration will reportedly resettle these migrants, who have returned voluntarily, to Jeda Camp in Nineveh. Since 2022, 22 Iraqi groups have left Hol Camp and returned to their country.
On economy and HTS unfulfilled promises
At a time when Syria’s economy is struggling with inflation, currency devaluation, and rising unemployment, a recent report issued by the Syrian Central Bank on the country’s general inflation rate of 2024 is questioned by several economist, dismissing the Central Bank’s numbers as inaccurate and unreliable.
The head of the Chamber of Industry in Damascus also criticized the Syrian provisional government for their unfulfilled promises to support the industrial sector and incentivize economy. After the fall of the Assad regime, 100,000 Syrians returned from the bordering countries. In a context where it is already hard to maintain the jobs of industrial workers, the lack of measures to answer the need of the newcomers will deepen the humanitarian and economical crisis already ongoing in Syria. On the other side, the announcement of the EU to lift the sanctions on energy, transport and banking on Monday 24th of February can bring important economical changes.
Trade unions against Syrian government’s decisions
The Syrian provisional government fired 400,000 workers connected to services and administration of the Syrian State. This was presented as part of a “government restructuring plan”, at a time when Syria’s economy is struggling with inflation, currency devaluation, and rising unemployment. Damascus workers’ unions organized demonstrations to protest the decision, calling for a suspension of the dismissals and the creation of independent review committees to reassess the process.
Tribal clashes growing in Deir Ezzor
Inhabitants of Deir ez zor are witnessing a surge in deadly clan clashes, increasing local insecurity and heightening residents’ fears, that already left nearly 20 dead and more than 100 injured by gunshots. Most of the victims are civilians uninvolved in the clashes. Community development initiatives promoting dialogue and reconciliation among tribes are unsuccessful, partly due to the fear of repression and increase of violence. Some civilians of the region recently called for “support from local and international organizations to motivate residents to work together”.
HTS and the of Southern Operation Room
Banyan Hariri, commander of the Southern Operations Room and member of HTS since 2018, has been promoted to colonel and assigned as commander of the military forces in the region of Hawran. His forces from the Southern Operations Room are being merged an integrated under the Defense Ministry together with soldiers of the SAA who fought on the ranks the dissolved Assad regime. The region of Hawran include Daraa and Suweyda, neighboring with the occupied Golan heights and the newly expanded “security zone” of Israel. This process is also happening together with increased security operations of the provisional government against old regime loyalists and drug dealers.
New military council in Suweyda
In Suweyda, the police command has been reactivated in coordination with the provisional government, and a similar process to resettle soldiers of the SAA started. After meeting with delegates from the provisional government, Druze leader Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri declared that men from Suweyda joining the army will serve in their regions, and that those who don’t want to join military service will continue their civilian lives. Allegedly, on February 22nd, a statement of a new military council of Suweyda was shared on social media, rejecting the integration of their forces in the ministry of defense of the HTS provisional government. We are not sure yet what this implies.
Israel not-anymore-temporal security zone
Israel defense minister declared that two military posts on mount Hermon and 7 more in the newly occupied “extended buffer zone” will be permanent. Netanyahu called for a demilitarization of the southern Syria and Israel intentions to not allow military forces of HTS provisional government deploy on the areas south of Damascus. Netanyahu expressed concerns about the safety of the Druze community, stating that they won’t tolerate threats against them.
# Analysis
Shortly before March 1st, the date that was marked for the dissolution of the provisional government and the creation of a new one, the dates for the awaited “national dialog conference” had been fixed for February 25th. The preparation committee for the conference is mainly composed of HTS members loyal to al-Sharaa, including two women to make-up the obvious bias of such a committee, one of them from Turkey. All members are then Sunni Muslim, without any efforts to represent other ethnic and religious minorities in Syria such as Kurds, Druze, Christians or Shia muslims. As we mentioned before, such a conference will probably end up being a staged performance where to announce the dissolution of HTS, transferring their institutions and man-power into the a new centralized Syrian government. Such moves aims to legitimize their power grab as well as getting rid of the “terrorist” label that still hangs on them, tracing them back to their origins as a branch of al-Qaeda.
To make such a move more compelling, several senior figures of Hurras al-Din, the hardliners that stayed loyal to al-Qaeda when HTS started to act independently from it, had been target by coalition air-strikes in Idlib. This is probably the result of coordinated exchange of information between al-Sharaa provisional government and the US military apparatus. The newly proclaimed president of Syria is getting rid of his old comrades, specially of those that still to extremist to be accepted by western powers. With his help, intelligence operatives are getting their coordinates to American drones that do what they had been trained to do for decades: find, fix, finish. Don’t get us wrong here, we don’t complain about those theocratic fascists being blown up into pieces. We just point out how this is part of the power games of another theocratic fascist climbing up his way to presidency of the government.
In a recent article of Robin Yassim-Kassab, coauthor of the book “burning country” with Leila al-Shami, he wrote that Syria needs a strong society, not a strongman. Decades of megalomaniac dictatorship in Syria, with big statues and massive picture of Assad everywhere (first the father and later the son), contributed to promote a mentality where centralized hierarchy, represented by one strong-man, is seen as the only possible expression of national unity. The brutal years of war have been an extreme example of where this leads, with the regime loyalists putting in practice their slogan “Assad or we burn the country”. They did burn the country, but this did not stop the regime from collapsing.
On the other side of the Eufrates river, the 3 main institutions of the northeast Syria (SDF, SDC and the DAANES) announced an agreement to accept some of the conditions proposed by the provisional government in Damascus. The details of that meeting have not been shared on official channels, but it shows the disposition of joining the transitional process ongoing in Syria. This came as Turkish threats of a full invasion still hanging over the regions of the autonomous administration. As far as we know, this there is not yet any formal agreement with the provisional government of Syria. Such agreement is therefore a display of the will to prioritize negotiations and to avoid a continuation of the bloodshed.
March will therefore be a very intense month, The awaited “historical the message” of Abdullah Ocalan, promised by the delegation that visited him in Imrali prison, will probably be announced soon. 8 of March, working women’s day, is also a very important date for the women’s movement leading the revolutionary process. Newroz, the Kurdish new year celebrations, also take place at the end of March. For as, Anarchists in NES, it is also a very special month since is the month that 3 of our anarchist comrades fell şehid in defending this revolution. We honor them and we carry their memories in our hearts, continuing the struggle they gave their life for.
Revolutionary greetings!