--- title: "Syria’s New Government Passes One Test: It Let Thousands of People Yell at It" description: "The broadest protests since Assad’s fall went home safely, which is historic, and also does nothing about the price of fuel" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-09-29T12:44:09.115Z modified: 2026-09-29T13:37:12Z url: https://rews.cc/a/syria-s-new-government-passes-one-test-it-let-thousands-of-p-ae7311 language: en tags: ["syria", "economy", "politics", "sanctions", "trump", "mideast"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Syria’s New Government Passes One Test: It Let Thousands of People Yell at It *The broadest protests since Assad’s fall went home safely, which is historic, and also does nothing about the price of fuel* By Nate Ledger · September 29, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/syria-s-new-government-passes-one-test-it-let-thousands-of-p-ae7311 ## In brief - Thousands joined Syria’s broadest protests since Assad’s fall after fuel price rises of up to 40%, partly reversed - State media broadcast the protests and participants went home safely, a break with the Assad era - The World Bank says two-thirds of Syrians live on under $3.65 a day; rebuilding is estimated at $216bn - US sanctions are fully lifted and $28bn pledged, but one economist says only ~5% of deals show progress - Al-Sharaa says Israel has struck Syria nearly 500 times and occupies the south; talks began in August last year Somewhere in eastern Syria this month, a man standing in a crowd of phone cameras complained about soaring fuel prices and addressed the country’s transitional president directly, CNN reports: > We stood with you, so stand with us. I swear by God, if things don’t change between now and the new year, the situation will turn into something we won’t want. Enough! Security officers stood nearby as he denounced the government. What happened next was striking precisely because it was nothing: he finished, and everyone went home. Earlier this month, thousands of Syrians joined the broadest protests since Bashar al-Assad’s fall nearly two years ago, and under a 54-year family police state in which public defiance could mean prison, torture, disappearance or death, “everyone went home” is not a small thing. State media broadcast the protests widely — a sharp break with the Assad era, when state television pushed claims that demonstrations were staged from faraway studios in Qatar. The trigger was the government’s sudden decision to raise fuel prices by as much as 40%, which it blamed on the global energy crisis caused by the Iran war. As outrage built, the government walked back some of the increases and sent the energy minister before parliament in a show of accountability. Analysts praised the responsiveness — but noted it does nothing about the fundamentals. The World Bank assesses that two-thirds of Syrians live below the lower middle-income poverty line, on less than $3.65 a day. “We’re going to see these protests happening over and over again,” Ibrahim al-Assil, director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Syria in Transition Lab, told CNN. “It’s virtually impossible to overcome these severe economic challenges that Syrians are suffering.” Charles Lister, director of the Syria Initiative at the Middle East Institute, frames it as the end of something inevitable: “The honeymoon period was always going to come to an end. People’s expectations were going to rise, and their patience was going to wear thin if those expectations weren’t met. That’s basically where we are.” Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa is trying to rebuild the country — an estimated $216 billion task — on a budget he does not have. He inherited a nearly bankrupt state plundered by Assad and his cronies, so the strategy is foreign money, and foreign money requires being legible to foreigners. By one Syria expert’s count, the government has met representatives of about 100 countries. Al-Sharaa has met US President Donald Trump four times since last May; the result has been the complete lifting of all US sanctions, the key that unlocks the rest. Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have driven most investment so far, estimated by Syria last year at $28 billion; the EU has committed $2.7 billion; Emmanuel Macron signed economic, transport and infrastructure agreements in Damascus in July. In a display of pragmatism, al-Sharaa keeps ties with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky. There is a logic to the world’s enthusiasm beyond goodwill. Syria sits at the heart of the region, connecting Asia and Europe through Mediterranean ports, and the civil war showed what a failed Syria exports: a migration crisis and the rise of ISIS. Amid the Iran war, al-Sharaa has been pitching Syria as a modern Silk Road — a land-bridge alternative to the straits of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb — and the proof of concept is already rolling, CNN reports, as thousands of tanker trucks carry oil from southern Iraq across Syria to the port of Baniyas. “Syria has restored its status into the international community,” al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. “We also built diplomatic bridges and we proved to the world that the security of the region has to start in Damascus.” The problem is temporal. “The reality is that most of these projects are 10-year strategic projects,” Lister says. “They’re not going to reduce the price of bread.” The end of sanctions has brought a flurry of smaller investments that employ people faster — those, he says, plant the seeds, “but it’s not going to result in those things being fixed next week. It’s probably going to take another year or two.” Karam Shaar, a Syrian political economist, estimates only 5% of the promised deals have made tangible progress; the most visible are UCC Holding’s renovations of power infrastructure and Damascus airport, led by the Syrian-Qatari Al-Khayyat brothers. “The economy is undoubtedly recovering. But that’s never the question for the average person,” he says. A protester, Bassam Al-Ali, put the grievance to Reuters more bluntly: “We do not want roundabouts. Every day they build a new roundabout that costs a million thousand dollars and malls and I don’t know what. Let your people live … this will let things explode.” Al-Assil warns the government’s “revolutionary legitimacy” could fade: “Buying patience from people requires allowing them to participate, making them feel that their voices are heard.” And then there is the variable Damascus does not control. “The world is joyed about our return. But Israel is launching attacks against Syria,” al-Sharaa said at the UN. He estimates Israel has carried out nearly 500 strikes since he took power; Israel also occupies large parts of southern Syria, and Israeli officials have said the military plans to stay indefinitely, citing distrust of al-Sharaa and the need for a security buffer. War-weary Syria says it wants no conflict. The two sides have held direct talks since August of last year, and al-Sharaa told an Atlantic Council panel in New York that negotiations “reached 90% of agreements” before Israel withdrew for “different reasons.” Lister says investors now ask him about Israel as much as about sanctions: “If the Israelis continue their current posture after their elections (in October), then more and more external investment into Syria is less likely — because they are waving this massive hammer over the head of Damascus.” The man in eastern Syria gave the government until the new year. The government’s honest answer is that the things that would change his life take a year or two even if everything goes right, and everything includes a neighbour with 500 strikes on the clock. The one resource Syria now has that it never had before is that he can say so out loud. Whether that buys a year is the test.