Four IEDs detonated in Damascus, just meters away from the residence of French President Emmanuel Macron. This field breach exposed the severe security failure of Ahmad al-Sharaa’s government in securing the capital, bringing Jolani’s jihadist past back to the forefront before the international community.
The formation of the new transitional parliament in Syria indicates that presidential appointments have entrenched executive centralization and transformed the "People's Assembly" into an arena for directed sectarian representation at the expense of professional sectors, amid the exclusion of pluralism and a clear marginalization of women and Syrian components.
The recent appointments and reshuffles by the transitional authority in Damascus reveal a systematic strategy to monopolize the key pillars of the Syrian state by cloning the "Salvation Government" experiment from Idlib and mainstreaming its cadres on a national level. While some technocratic figures are utilized as an administrative facade, actual power is concentrated in the hands of a single security and military network. This excludes political pluralism and deepens international doubts regarding the new authority's capacity to build inclusive national institutions or secure any effective diplomatic recognition.
Reports and data from International Society for Human Rights (ISHR) document the direct repercussions of the Syrian transitional authority's policies and its affiliated militias on the Christian component. The decline in political representation, the absence of legal accountability, and property and security violations constitute a direct demographic and political threat to the Christian presence in its historical areas, necessitating international action regarding these developments and the country's political transition process.
ACLED data documents a notable surge in ISIS attacks against Syrian government forces during the first half of 2026. The data illustrates how the group exploited the growing security vacuum and shortcomings to shift its offensive operations from desert regions to targeting fortified positions within urban centers, warning of an increasing frequency of bombings and attacks in the coming phase.
An ACLED report documents the escalation of protests in Syria due to current government policies. Economic failures, the absence of accountability, and the disregard for security and service crises emerge as the primary drivers of the new civil movement.
A Human Rights Watch report warned of the repercussions of the legislative vacuum and security shortcomings in Syria, following the documentation of revenge attacks and identity-based violence in Damascus and Idlib. The report emphasized that the authorities' failure to enforce the rule of law, relying solely on official statements, has led to a state of security breakdown and extrajudicial vigilante justice.
A UN briefing before the Security Council documents Damascus's failure to manage the Sweida crisis, as thousands of students are deprived of their education amid escalating security chaos and a political paralysis striking the institutions of the transitional authority.
"A terrorist in a suit"... this is how the Israeli leadership summarized its view of Ahmad al-Sharaa's government in Damascus, coinciding with an extensive Israeli military expansion in southern Syria and a complete absence of an official response, amid field and diplomatic challenges that reflect the declining ability of the new Syrian leadership to manage the regional scene.
Through secret coordination between Ankara and Tehran to arm 'Hezbollah' via Syria, Syrian Ministry of Defense vehicles and local militias assume the task of providing logistical and security cover for military supplies; consequently, state institutions are exploited as executive tools to facilitate the deals of regional powers, at the expense of what remains of national sovereignty.
Damascus operates today under an authority lacking actual sovereignty, as the new leadership trades the country's independence for complete reliance on Turkish security tutelage. Based on a report by New Lines magazine, Ahmad al-Sharaa's government manages its affairs through political opportunism, navigating between its extremist past and the manipulation of alliances to ensure its survival in power at any cost.
The Damascus government is confiscating the opportunities for political transition in Syria in favor of entrenching unilateral power that excludes Syrians. In the absence of any genuine constitutional and representative legitimacy, the new rule transforms into a de facto dictatorship that establishes absolute totalitarianism, placing the country on the brink of a new collapse.
