In mid-August protests erupted in the government-held Syrian city of Suwayda after Bashar al-Assad’s embattled government slashed fuel subsidies, driving up the cost of living in a country where the economy was already battered by high inflation and a civil war that has gone on for more than a decade. The protesters are mainly from the Suwayda’s Druze community, a religious minority group which has remained neutral for much of Syria’s civil war but has begun demanding the ousting of Assad at a time when he has enjoyed renewed diplomatic support in the Middle East after recapturing much of Syria.
Asmaa Al Osman, a journalist based in Istanbul, says that these protests show that despite Assad’s international rehabilitation and his claims that he has emerged the victor from the decade-long conflict, it is far from over.
