Syria transition

Assessment

The transition continues to consolidate after the SDF's Aug 25 dissolution announcement and the US rescinding Syria's state-sponsor-of-terrorism designation on Aug 24, but economic strain produced the first broad street protests of the transition. On Sept 13 and 14 demonstrators blocked the M5 highway near Maarat al-Numan with burning tyres and protested in Idlib, Hama, Khan Sheikhoun, Azaz and al-Bab after the Oil Ministry raised petroleum product prices by 25 to 40 percent and called the rise temporary; the Syrian Observatory said interior ministry forces fired live ammunition to disperse crowds. Al Jazeera reported on Sept 15 that a Russian four-vessel convoy including the cargo ship Sparta and the oiler Akademik Pashin delivered supplies to Tartous on Sept 7, the first resupply under an early-August memorandum converting Tartous and Hmeimim into joint training and capacity-building centres. Damascus began destroying Assad-era chemical weapons materials on Sept 3, the IAEA placed the Assad-era reactor site under oversight on Sept 7, and Suwayda remains outside government control under Israeli protection while an Israel-Syria security agreement is negotiated.