One of the most prominent challenges facing the Syrian government at the present time is the foreign fighters who formed the bulk of the forces that toppled the Assad regime at the end of 2024, and many of them received important positions in the new Syrian government, especially in security and military positions.
This challenge featured prominently in the US conditions it set for the lifting of sanctions on Damascus, including the deportation of all foreign terrorists from Syria, and this condition confirms a number of facts, including that a very high percentage of those who fought in Syria from 2011 until the end of 2024 were not from Syria, but from different nationalities who were recruited by many countries that found their interest in them, and thus this reminds us of the Arab Afghans, who fought the Soviets in the 1980s in Afghanistan and later turned into a great burden not only on Afghanistan but on their countries, which found that their return means planting ticking time bombs that can be detonated.
This is why we find, as observers, that the US conditions for lifting sanctions on Syria were not as easy as some imagined, because they require the departure of these foreigners from the country on the one hand, and on the other hand, that ISIS does not return under any name whatsoever again, and this matter would create a state of conflict between many parties and factions currently present in Syria, including those who announced their joining the Syrian armed forces, but from Washington's point of view, this joining does not mean that they are not foreign forces that need to leave for the stability of Syria first and the region second.
Hence, we find that the fighters of this organization are present inside the Syrian territories and have launched in recent days a number of operations in Syrian cities. In addition, the so-called Al-Naba newspaper affiliated with this organization launched a strong attack against Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa after meeting US President Trump, and certainly this verbal attack has many dimensions on the Syrian arena, especially as we pointed out that one of Washington's demands is to remove these foreigners from Syria and ensure that ISIS does not return again.
This American demand is in line with the demands of Syria's neighboring countries, primarily Iraq, which has suffered from this terrorist organization in the past years and succeeded in expelling it from Iraqi cities and pushing it behind the border, but it is certainly still moving somewhat freely inside Syrian territory, which has witnessed several operations by it in recent times. This means that the Syrian government faces a major security challenge represented by the presence of these foreigners on Syrian soil. Certainly, the majority of them cannot return to their home countries due to several factors, including the fact that many countries have revoked the citizenship of these individuals and that many of them have judicial files there.
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