# Syria **Syria** is the country where Russia proved it could save a client with air power and deniable mercenaries — and then lost it anyway. Moscow's 2015 intervention, with [[Wagner Group]] fighters on the ground, kept [[Bashar al-Assad]] in power for nine more years. On December 8, 2024 an offensive led by [[Hayat Tahrir al-Sham]] took Damascus and Assad fled to Moscow. The new president, [[Ahmed al-Sharaa]] — a former al-Qaeda commander once known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani — has since been embraced by the [[Donald Trump]] administration, while keeping a downgraded relationship with [[Vladimir Putin]]. > [!note] Canonical country record > This page owns the bare name **Syria**. The war is at [[Syrian Civil War]]; the fallen government at [[Assad Regime]]; the 2018 Wagner–US clash at [[Battle of Khasham]]. ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | 2011 | Uprising against Assad becomes a civil war; more than 600,000 dead by 2024 | | Sep 30, 2015 | Russian military intervention begins; Wagner deploys from late 2015 | | 2016–2017 | Wagner fights at Palmyra; Prigozhin-controlled [[Evro Polis]] receives a cut of oil and gas from fields Wagner retakes from ISIS | | Feb 7–8, 2018 | [[Battle of Khasham]] — US strikes devastate a column including Wagner fighters | | Dec 8, 2024 | Assad regime falls; Assad granted asylum in Moscow | | Jan 29, 2025 | Sharaa named president | | Mar 6–10, 2025 | Coastal massacres: about 1,400 killed, mostly Alawite civilians; the UN commission found likely war crimes by both government-affiliated forces and Assad loyalists | | Mar 13, 2025 | Constitutional Declaration sets a five-year transition | | May 14, 2025 | Trump announces sanctions relief and meets Sharaa in Riyadh | | Jul 2025 | US revokes HTS terrorist designation; Suwayda clashes kill over 1,300, Israel strikes Damascus | | Nov 10, 2025 | Sharaa's White House visit — the first by a Syrian president | | Dec 2025 | Congress repeals the Caesar Act sanctions in the FY2026 defense bill | | Jan 18, 2026 | Sharaa and Kurdish-led SDF commander Mazloum Abdi sign an integration deal after fighting in Aleppo | | Jul 2026 | Indirectly chosen People's Assembly convenes — two-thirds picked by electoral bodies, one-third appointed by Sharaa; Trump moves to lift Syria's state-sponsor-of-terrorism listing | | Aug 9, 2026 | Syria–Russia agreement turns Russia's bases into "joint training" centers within three months | | Aug 24, 2026 | US state-sponsor-of-terrorism designation rescinded after 47 years | ## Russia after Assad Russia did not leave Syria; it was demoted. Sharaa visited Moscow in October 2025 and January 2026, and Russia continued to use the Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval facility — a key link in the supply chain to [[Africa Corps]] in [[Libya]] and the Sahel. Under the August 9, 2026 memorandum, the Syrian state takes over the civilian side — Hmeimim's civilian airport and a commercial berth at Tartus — and the Russian military facilities become joint training and rehabilitation centers by about early November 2026. Putin and Sharaa confirmed the arrangement in a call on August 26. A Syrian source told Reuters that some Russian personnel will stay on at the training centers; as of early October 2026 no completed handover had been reported. Assad remains in Moscow; no extradition has been reported. ## The Trump embrace Washington's reversal on Sharaa is one of the sharpest in recent US foreign policy: from a $10 million terrorism bounty on Jolani to an Oval Office meeting within a year. Executive actions in June 2025 ended six Syria sanctions orders; the HTS terrorist designation was revoked in July 2025; the UN and US delisted Sharaa personally in November 2025; and Congress repealed the Caesar Act in December 2025. Envoy [[Tom Barrack]] has managed the Kurdish file. Secretary of State [[Marco Rubio]] signed the rescission of Syria's state-sponsor-of-terrorism designation — in place since December 1979 — effective August 24, 2026; the same day the US revoked the terrorist designation of al-Nusra Front. ## See Also - [[Ahmed al-Sharaa]] · [[Bashar al-Assad]] · [[Assad Regime]] · [[Hayat Tahrir al-Sham]] - [[Wagner Group]] · [[Battle of Khasham]] · [[Africa Corps]] · [[Russia]] - [[Kurds]] · [[Druze]] · [[Israel]] · [[Turkey]] · [[Iran]] · [[Hezbollah]] · [[Countries Hub]]