Syria’s Tightrope: Between U.S.- aided Rehabilitation and Potential Ruin Under Failing Economy And External Vultures Ready To Pounce For Remains.

The al-Sharaa Government Is Doing Everything It Can To Appease Impossible Demands From The Trump Admin.

• Few moments in Middle Eastern diplomacy offer the kind of quiet urgency now emanating from Syria’s nascent post-Assad government.

• The scene unfolding in Damascus is not one of triumph, but of precarious recalibration - a tightrope walk between two gravitational poles: one offering economic redemption through Western alignment, the other dragging the country back into the orbit of Tehran and Moscow.

• At the heart of the matter is the extraordinary list of U.S. demands delivered last month in Brussels by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Natasha Franceschi.

• Among the eight preconditions for partial sanctions relief: a blanket ban on all Palestinian political activity within Syria, the designation of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist entity, and a carte blanche for U.S. counterterrorism strikes inside Syrian territory.

• In exchange? A two-year waiver on Caesar Act sanctions and potential access to long-frozen financial assets - lifelines for a state starved of basic economic oxygen.

Tough Choices Facing al-Sharaa

• Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s government has moved with uncharacteristic speed to show its willingness to play ball.

• In recent weeks, Damascus has:

• Detained two senior leaders of Islamic Jihad, a group closely tied to the October 2023 Gaza attacks - clearly signaling a clampdown on Palestinian militants operating from Syrian soil.

• Engaged with the UN’s OPCW, allowing renewed chemical weapons inspections for the first time in a decade.

• Strengthened security coordination with U.S.-aligned Kurdish SDF units, including a landmark ceasefire pact signed in Damascus with SDF commander Mazloum Abdi, who arrived aboard an American helicopter.

• Restructured the Syrian Arab Army, and made credible pledges to exclude foreign military personnel from command roles.

• Welcomed OPCW and UN delegations, initiating transparency steps on Syria’s chemical weapons dossier that Western diplomats had long considered a non-starter under Assad.

These are not cosmetic shifts. They represent substantive, structural progress. And yet Washington’s response has, so far, bordered on dismissive.

An Impractical Wishlist