The United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus — not to defend Syria’s newfound freedom, but to enforce a “security pact” the U.S. is purportedly brokering between Syria and Israel. The move, reported by Reuters today, comes just 24 hours after Israel set up another checkpoint in Quneitra, the latest in an ongoing string of incursions and base-constructions justified under the banner of “protecting the Druze.” The interim government has so far remained diplomatically silent.

This comes barely 11 months after Syrians overthrew a hereditary dictatorship that ruled by terror for more than half a century. That victory was hard-won through uprising, resilience, and unimaginable sacrifice. It was not handed to Syrians by any foreign power. Yet now, three superpowers — the U.S., Israel, and Russia — are imposing a new order from above, one in which Syria’s sovereignty has become a negotiable asset, and its revolution rebranded by outsiders as a ‘repositioning’ — as though liberation were a marketing slogan, not a vast sacrifice for freedom.

In this new choreography, Israel is the only actual partner to the US and Russia – the only nation allowed agency and active decision-making powers. It can build military outposts on Syrian soil, and violate sovereignty without consequence, shielded by tacit U.S. support and Russian indifference. If Syria’s government were to resist this invasion and occupation of sovereign Syrian territory, it would be internationally denounced. If it were to even think about doing the same to Israel it would be condemned immediately as a terrorist state, with the F16s and missiles flying within minutes. This imbalance is not a chance flaw. It is the regional structure.

Meanwhile, Russia, far from opposing these moves, is quietly embedded in them. Just weeks ago, President Ahmed al-Sharaa was in Moscow shaking hands with officials still sheltering Bashar al-Assad in exile. Russian bases in Tartus and Hmeimim are being reinforced with advanced weaponry and supplies. Moscow, whose forces coordinated previously in Syria with those of Israel and the US under Assad, has no objection to a U.S. base in Damascus and Israeli bases in Quneitra — so long as it keeps its own in Tartous.

This isn’t a peace deal. It’s a pre-arranged management plan, with Syria offered just enough ‘agency’ to sign on the dotted line. The U.S. monitors the skies, Israel expands on the ground, and Russia keeps its ports — a tripartite oversight that treats Syrian freedom as a footnote.

What’s happening to Syria is a pattern. Syrians, Palestinians, and Lebanese are subjected to the same grotesque logic: fight tyranny or foreign occupation, and you’re labeled a terrorist. Accept dictated terms, and you’re allowed to exist. Their liberation is always conditional. Their resistance is always criminalized.

Revolution rid Syria of a tyrant, but the world has no intention of allowing Syrians to build a free country on their own terms. Instead, the map is being drawn again — not in Damascus, but in Washington, Tel Aviv, and Moscow — and Syria is being told, yet again, to fit inside its borders.

Reacting to today’s revelation and to the lack of choices allowed to Syrians, Syrian academic and author Line Alkhatib said that the Syrians she’d spoken with had expressed frustration, anger, and contemptuous resignation for the international community’s customary betrayal, which boiled down to “It’s either this or war.”

That’s what foreign-imposed 'peace' looks like for Syrians today: an impossible choice between submission to a new regional order, or being plunged again into chaos.

By Ruth Riegler

Photo: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa meets U.S. President Donald Trump in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in this Saudi Press Agency (SPA) handout released on May 14, 2025