Ahmed al-Sharaa inherited a country in ruins. War halved the size of Syria’s economy and left nine people out of ten below the poverty line. According to serious Israeli sources, the priority in Damascus has little to do with reconstruction.
Al-Sharaa, it appears, is directing most of the state’s resources, foreign aid included, toward a large standing army and new weapons systems, while concealing the scale of the effort. His forces are not yet rated as capable, but they have held brigade-level exercises, are being organized into brigades with divisions to follow, and are seeking air defenses able to restrict the Israeli Air Force. This is the army Israel gutted in December 2024, when 480 strikes in two days destroyed an estimated 80 percent of Assad’s strategic arsenal. It is being rebuilt with money meant to rebuild the country.
