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Syria

If and When Engagement Fails: A Prelude to the “Concert for Syria”

By Alan Nasif on December 10, 2025

It is apparent that since the fall of Assad in December last year, a concerted regional and international effort has been dedicated to avert Syria’s plunging into total chaos. The Trump administration is resolved to achieve long-lasting peace in the Middle-East, and has made it amply clear that a stable Syria is elemental to the realization of that end. The situation on the ground remains precarious, nonetheless. 

 

The United States has been actively pursuing a policy of engagement, following the recommendation of strategic regional partners — namely, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Qatar. Cogent and simple, “let’s give them a chance!” Reads the Trump administration’s Syria policy. And whether it is POTUS’ Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack, Secretary of State Rubio, or President Trump himself — notwithstanding the encouraging official narrative, uplifting rhetoric, and the wave of enthusiasm echoing across international hallways — no one is having a kumbaya moment about the reality of the Syrian situation. [emphasis added] 

 

The United States is never short on realtime intelligence, and the Trump administration fully understands that at the end of the day, Syrians have to come through themselves.

 

And so, a chance has been given.

 

The question is: To whom?

 

While the self-proclaimed “transformed ex-Jihadi” leader and interim-President Al-Sharaa is being courted as the triumphant revolutionary in international capitals, Washington included; and the “recipient-apparent” of this gracious chance; President Trump has stressed time and again that the chance is meant for Syrians, as a people, and that he’d like to see the country succeed. His administration is naturally dealing with whomever is at the helm. 

Simultaneously, both President Trump and Ambassador Barrack have been unequivocal that some sort of a peace deal with Israel is a conditio sine qua non for an enduring “solution”. [emphasis added]

 

 

Preliminary Israeli-Syrian negotiations took place earlier this year, in Baku and Paris, via American mediation; but no final agreement has been reached thus far.

 

On the one hand, the Israelis are uneasy about the prevalent persecution of ethnic and religious minorities in Syria, stemming from radical Islamic ideology; which makes them much more unsure vis-à-vis the “ex-jihadi” interim-government’s readiness for genuine and comprehensive peace with any non-Muslim community. On the other hand, the Syrians are citing recurrent Israeli incursions into Syrian territory and “meddling in Syria’s international affairs” (referring to the IAF’s intervention in July to stop the genocide of the Druze in As-Suwayda province) as provocative acts of aggression. Consequently, the trilateral talks have reached an impasse.

 

For Israel, as it is for the civilized world entire, it is a wholly different world post October 7. The demonic blitz offensive that Hamas terrorists have mounted on that day and the resultant heinous massacres constituted a paradigm shift in the realm of counterterrorism. It has settled the matter conclusively: Political Islam (Islamism) is incapable of any form of modus vivendi. 

 

With respect to Syria, there’s scantly any reason for Israel to believe that the outcome could be any different under the incumbent president. Mixed signals have emanated from Damascus since day one. The rhetoric of self-appointed interim-President Ahmad al-Sharaa has been built on the premise that Syria would not turn into a “launching pad” for attacks against its neighbors, referring to Israel. 

 

Meanwhile, sporadic anti-Israel marches and rallies have broke out across different Syrian cities within the span of the past twelve months. Some in solidarity with Gaza. Others, unabashedly calling for Jihad on Israel. All under the aegis of the interim-government. 

 

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has expressed deep concerns that al-Sharaa has returned with an inflated ego from his trip to the White House — misconstruing American engagement and support for guarantees in the event of conflict with Israel; especially stoked by the United States professed mesmerization with his “stellar” performance and accomplishments, which remain a complete mystery to all spectators! 

 

Puffed-up and inebriated on Uncle Sam’s endorsement, the Syrian de-facto leader went to the Doha Forum girded with vanity. He sat there confidently extolling his own virtues and commending his selfless sacrifices over his Jihad-years to CNN icon Christiane Amanpour; who was in turn swept off her feet by his communication skills. He went on further to redefine terrorism for the world, exonerating himself, Hamas, and all Islamic-Jihad movements, simultaneously applying the description to the United States and Israel, whilst lamenting Hamas fallen terrorists in Gaza [emphasis added]. Irony abounds!

 

 

And so Türkiye’s golden son took his leave to Damascus to make it just in time to celebrate the first anniversary of “liberation” — feeling invincible, fully intoxicated, with a pinch of ill-founded megalomania.

 

He puts on his khaki uniform for optics and heads to the Grand Umayyad Mosque. It is the same uniform he had on when he first came to Damascus a year ago; which no longer fits, due to his ego-inflation as PM Netanyahu has observed earlier, and possible overindulgence in classic New York hotdogs; that has materialized in the form of a protrusion — which constituted quite a struggle for his shirt’s buttons to remain in place and not snap, taking someone’s eye out. 

 

Al-Sharaa, President of Syria
Al-Sharaa’s Public Address to Syrians from the Grand Umayyad Mosque on the First Anniversary of “Liberation”

 

 

Ascending to the podium at the Umayyad Mosque, he addressed Syrians recollecting al-Baghdadi’s words: “Syrians, obey me as I obey God in you! For by God, no one will stand in our face no matter how big or great!”

 

 

 

 

 

And the overjoyed crowd hailed his self-proclaimed “Divine Right” to rule, as that of kings of old!

 

The confrontational tone echoed loud through the land’s length and breadth. 

 

Meanwhile, the new “Syrian Arab Army” was getting into formation on the Mazzeh highway for the military parade that would soon follow. 

A poorly-coordinated (from a military viewpoint) march proceeded with al-Sharaa, his defense minister, and other generals present. No cries for Syria were heard, only shoutouts to Gaza filled the void [emphasis added]. 

 

The troops chanted:

“Gaza, Gaza, our rallying cry,

Victory and steadfastness, night and day.

We rise against you, enemy, we rise,

From mountains of fire we make our way.

From blood I forge my ammunition,

From your blood, rivers will flow.”

 

Al-Sharaa seemed satisfied with these words falling on his ears.

 

Later that day, mixed civilian-military rallies swarmed across different parts of Damascus and other cities, featuring “al-Tawhid” banner (a white version of ISIS flag), and in spite of the distance, the mantra was sung as a monophony: “Khaybar, Khaybar, O Jews! Mohammad’s army is coming back!” Alluding to the fall of the Jewish stronghold in Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century. 

 

 

[NOTE: Similar rallies chanting the aforementioned mantra took place in the old city of Damascus, the yard of the Grand Umayyad Mosque, and in main squares in Homs, Hama, and Aleppo, during the first months of the HTS-led interim-government’s assumption of power.] 

 

It should be readily apparent to the meanest intelligence that this has crossed the threshold of political enmity for the State of Israel on the state-level, and has emerged as an ominous anti-semitic Jew-hatred on the grassroots-level of the populace. 

 

Israel observed with high-watch alarm. In the meantime, Bibi’s government is holding cross-departmental consultations to formulate a commensurate response — as the Syrian authorities continue to refrain from condemning these hostile slogans. Simultaneously, Türkiye has seized the opportunity to press for the deployment of 2,000 Turkish troops as part of international corps into the Gaza Strip [emphasis added].

 

 

Erdogan the Senile, whether directly or via his proxies, is attempting to encircle Israel. 

Last night, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora, Amichai Chikli, quote-tweeted a Visegrád post featuring the Syrian military parade on X, saying: “War is inevitable.”

 

Minister Chikli’s vexation is not only legitimate, but has been avowed by the actions of al-Sharaa’s government and loyalists.

Myself, I have cautioned two days prior to al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House last month: “Soon the Trump admin will come to realize that the Syrian practice of statecraft (irrespective of the individuality of “statesmen”) is drawn to disorder and tension as instinctively as lemmings run to the sea.

It is a Syrian peculiarity!” 

 

 

 

Of course, that is not to say that Syria is incapable of producing seasoned and prudent statesmen/women; rather, that the Syrian political intellectuality has to be “reborn” — cleansed from the residues of past decades, particularly the cancer of third-world grievance. 

 

So, if and when engagement fails, which many, myself included, believe that it has, what comes next for Syria?

 

 

As war clouds are brewing over the Middle-East, the time is ripe to call for a “Concert for Syria”! 

 

 

 

Related publications: “The Scramble for Syria: A Scenario”; “How Could the Middle-East Be the End of NATO: A Scenario;” And, “How Could the Middle-East Be the End of NATO: A Scenario [Part II: Erdogan Pushes the Dead Man’s Button]”; “The New Middle-East: Syria, Gaza, and New Maps [Part I]”; “The New Middle-East: Syria, Gaza, and New Maps [Part II]”; And, “Foreign Fighters and the Blindspot in the Joint American-Israeli Syria Policy: A Recommendation”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Published in Articles and Opinion

Alan Nasif
Alan Nasif

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