The Middle East will only know peace and democratic and social rights with the socialist revolution of the region’s workers and peoples.
By Ruben Tzanoff
New authorities
At the end of March 2025, almost four months after the overthrow of dictator Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s current president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, announced the formation of a new transitional government. Speaking from the presidential palace in Damascus, al-Sharaa introduced 23 ministers,
four from the outgoing government and the others, mostly new, including a woman from the Christian community and symbolic representation from each of the Druze, Kurdish and Alawite religious communities.
Israeli attacks
In April, Israeli armed forces carried out attacks on Syrian territory. In the province of Daraa, they killed nine civilians and launched aerial bombardments against infrastructure in Damascus, Hama and Homs. One of the targets was Homs’s T-4 airport, a strategic point targeted by Turkey for the installation of a troop training center.
Turkey is attempting to establish one of the military bases it has agreed with the new Syrian administration.
Israel has declared that its army will remain in the occupied areas of the Golan Heights from December 2024, and has warned the Syrian government of the possibility of reprisals if it lets in Turkish troops, which it considers as much of a threat as any other country not flying the Israeli or American flag. The HTS (Levant Liberation Organization) forces did not act, following the directive of President Al Sharaa, who reiterated that “from the first moment, we announced that Syria would not pose a threat to any state in the region or the world”, which obviously includes the genocidal state of Israel.
Increased regional tensions
Following the fall of Bashar al-Assad and the rise to power of the Turkish-led HTS, tensions between Turkey and Israel have increased. This has not meant any further estrangement from the United States, with whom Turkey is negotiating, among other things, the lifting of sanctions imposed for the purchase of the Russian S-400 missile defense system. Iran’s “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei also authorized the opening of talks with US imperialism in Oman, in response to Donald Trump’s ultimatum to negotiate for two months to neutralize Iran’s nuclear program or bomb the country. The reactionary ayatollah regime wants to stabilize the domestic situation by any means possible, fearing new social explosions due to the severe economic crisis. Washington described the first rounds of negotiations as “positive and constructive”, while Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi emphasized the climate of mutual respect that had been established during the meetings.
Socialism as a strategic solution
The continuing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine under the aegis of the United States, Israel’s attacks and expansionist policies towards Lebanon and Syria, growing tensions with Turkey and Iran, and Russia’s ever-present but waning influence, make up the complex scenario facing Syria.
Syria faces a complex scenario.
With a people battered by years of civil war, dictatorship and sectarian conflict, the country is fragmented, besieged by the interests of regional and global powers, and with an uncertain destiny. In this context, the only viable path to peace is the defeat of the State of Israel in order to establish a single, secular, democratic, non-racist and socialist Palestine, put an end to all imperialist interference and build new political alternatives from the ground up. Neither bourgeois regimes nor reactionary fundamentalism will be able to guarantee profound transformations to achieve exceptional democratic and social rights and the self-determination of peoples. Only the independent organization of the region’s workers and peoples, within the framework of a regional revolution, can pave the way for a socialist Syria and a free Federation of Socialist States in the Middle East.
