Trump’s Aid Freeze Could Leave Millions of Syrians in the Dark

Omar Hamed Beato is a visual journalist from Spain based in the Middle East covering conflict, climate change, migration, and social issues. You can find him on Instagram and follow his work here.

As night falls over Qaboun, one of the many shattered neighborhoods on the outskirts of Syria’s capital Damascus, it almost becomes impossible to witness the devastation left by over thirteen years of civil war. What was once a bustling area with cars weaving through streets and vendors hawking their goods amid the rubble has now transformed into a ghost town, deserted streets dark except for the far in-between pockets of light from those wealthy enough to afford electricity generators. Rania Laila, a 38-year-old mother of four, lives in a small rental house that has recently been rebuilt surrounded by half-collapsed buildings. In their dimly lit living room, the family relies on candles and a small rechargeable lamp, charged during the single hour each day when the government briefly activates the neighborhood’s electrical grid.

”I hope for the electricity situation to get better because it’s the most important thing, we just want to be able to live our lives,” says Laila, in her living room surrounded by her family. 

Unlike many others who managed to flee during the war, Laila and her family had to stay in Qaboun during the war as they had no means to move elsewhere. Most of the electrical infrastructure in the area has either been destroyed or looted, and they count themselves among the fortunate few who can at least recharge their phones. Not having electricity means the family has to shower in icy water during the cold winter months where it is not uncommon to reach freezing temperatures in their unheated home. At night, the entire family huddles together in the living room, wrapped in layers of thick blankets to stay warm.

”We would like to go somewhere where there is electricity because electricity is everything in life,” she says. ”We are here without water, we wait for the electricity to come so we are able to shower. Yesterday was a tragedy. We all needed to shower but we couldn’t. Some days we get electricity for one hour, some days it is just from five to fifteen minutes and some days it turns on while we are asleep so we miss it. We have to be careful about using the phone’s battery because it is the only way we can know what time of day it is.”

Laila’s situation, while difficult, is not exclusive to her family. The entirety of the country lives with two hours or less of electricity a day — even in major cities like Damascus. Rural areas, meanwhile, are often left with no electricity at all. After more than thirteen years of civil war, Syria bears the scars of conflict, with 6.2 million people seeking asylum abroad and 7.2 million internally displaced. Combined, the displaced population amounts to more than five times the population of the city of Chicago. For those who have remained in the country, the situation is even worse —nine out of ten live below the poverty line, or on less than $2.15 per day. 

The lack of electricity is a significant factor contributing to the hardships faced by Syrians. Electricity is essential for performing basic household chores, powering hospital operating rooms, and sustaining the production processes of countless businesses. Without it, leaving poverty behind seems like an impossible task. This is the case of Mohammed Kamal Kashef, a 51-year-old carpenter working in Yarmouk, Syria’s largest informal Palestinian refugee camp —an area that witnessed some of the darkest chapters of the war. The camp endured a nearly five-year siege by pro-Assad forces, three of which while it was under the control of the Islamic State, until 2018. Kashef fled to Sudan during the war and returned to Syria in 2019, when the frontlines stabilized and Damascus became a relatively safer zone. Six months ago, he opened his business on the camp’s main street, using a small generator to power the machinery needed for cutting and treating wood. 

”This is the third or fourth time I’ve started [my life] from zero,” recalls Kashef from inside his shop. ”We have no services in Yarmouk. I have a generator, it is enough for my work. I pay for fuel depending on the amount of work I have.” 

He says he could produce more stocks if he had cheaper access to electricity. ”Right now, I can’t use the generator unless a client asks for something specific. If I had electricity, I would have pre-made some sets to sell like tables, closets or even kitchens that would save me some time. Life needs fighting and in the end, God will help us. If we work, we eat, if we don’t, we starve.”

A long way towards reconstruction.

Years of war decimated Syria’s power plants and infrastructure, leaving half of the country’s electricity grid out of service. Power stations in Aleppo, Mahardah, and Zayzoun were destroyed and energy substations —in charge of distributing electricity coming from the main power station to different areas across population centers— have lost most of their transformers. As a result, even when electricity is available, it can only be supplied to limited areas at any given time. According to information obtained by the International Policy Journal (IPJ) from the Syrian Ministry of Electricity, which has recently been merged with the Ministry of Energy after the formation of the new transitional government, it will take $40 billion to rebuild the electricity grid alone. Some estimates put the total cost of reconstruction of Syria at $250 billion, a figure comparable to New Zealand’s annual GDP.

Fuel shortages have further worsened Syria’s electricity crisis. Before the Arab Spring in 2011, Syria produced over 330,000 barrels of oil per day; by 2014, three years into civil war, that figure had plummeted to just 20,000 barrels. To compensate for this decrease in production, a sizable quantity of fuel began to be supplied by the Iranian government. 

“We used to get fuel from Iran. The supplies were cut off and we are facing [international] sanctions,” says Omar Shakrouk, the appointed minister of electricity after Assad’s fall, speaking from his office at the Ministry in Damascus. To compensate for the shortage of electricity, the Qatari and Turkish governments are set to send electricity-generating ships to Syria that can produce 800 megawatts (MW). However, the ministry has not been able to confirm the arrival date of these ships.

”As you know the electricity situation is very bad in Syria, there’s a shortage in generation and the energy supply. The situation is bad in general,” continues Shakrouk. According to him, the country can currently produce 1,700 MW of electricity; that figure will have to be increased seven-fold to meet the 12,000 MW country-wide demand over the next five years. To bridge the gap, the government will have to repair the damaged infrastructure. However, a shortage of spare parts and oil, as well as a lack of skilled labour make it increasingly challenging. 

With Assad now in Russia and Iranian troops withdrawn from Syria, Western sanctions enacted against the now-absent regime present a major hurdle for the new government’s reconstruction efforts. These sanctions not only block the government’s purchase of essential spare parts but also limit the import of the oil needed to run the remaining infrastructure at full capacity.

Although the U.S. has removed the $10 million bounty on Interim President Ahmed Al-Shaara, the rebel group he led towards Damascus last December, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS),  is still classified as a terrorist organization by the UN Security Council, the European Union, and the U.S., with its former ties to Al-Qaeda remaining a point of concern.

Despite this, Western nations have adopted a cautious “wait-and-see” approach, signaling a readiness to lift sanctions if the new Syrian administration enacts meaningful reforms, such as protecting the rights of minorities and women. For instance, in January, the former Biden administration issued a six-month waiver of sanctions, and, at the end of February, the EU lifted sanctions targeting key sectors such as energy and banking. 

However, even after repeated visits by Western diplomats to Damascus following the fall of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime last December, and Ahmed Al-Shaara’s ongoing efforts to build relationships with the West, many of the sanctions imposed on Assad’s regime for its oppressive actions remain largely intact.

”If you want big investments in Syria, you need to stop sanctions indefinitely, not only temporarily. If the EU lifts sanctions while the US keeps them in place, it won’t make any effect because companies have a much bigger stake in the US than in Syria,” explains Joseph Daher, a Syrian political economist and author of the book Syria after the uprisings: the political economy of state resilience, via phone call from Switzerland. 

”The power plants need complete maintenance, we could not secure the needed parts. Buying fuel from other countries is complicated. We are struggling to secure flows of funding and the international currency that we need, ”continues Shakrouk. ”The sanctions impact every area, for example securing spare parts and [bringing foreign] companies. With the European sanctions lifted there is more space to have international companies, but the U.S. sanctions have a bigger impact especially because of the currency exchange and [lack of] funding. The removal of the U.S. sanctions is the most important step toward reconstructing Syria. If it doesn’t happen, the rebuilding will be impacted and much harm will be done.”

It’s not only the sanctions, it’s also the aid

The Trump administration’s decision to dismantle USAID and halt foreign aid, followed by significant aid cuts from the British government, means the funding for Syria’s reconstruction remains uncertain. The U.S. has historically been Syria’s top aid donor contributing to a quarter of all foreign aid going into the country —that compromised almost $390 million in 2024 alone. This will only exacerbate the strain on Syria’s chronically underfunded programs. In 2024, the UN inter-agency funding plan for Syria had a 64 percent funding shortfall. 

At a video appearance at the Ninth Annual Brussels Conference ‘Standing with Syria: meeting the needs for a successful transition’ on March 17, Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General, urged countries to reconsider funding cuts. ”Syria [is] one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world, but funding for the humanitarian response continues to fall short. The international community must move with urgency to invest in Syria’s future, By expanding humanitarian support and reconsidering any cuts to funding at this critical time. By investing in Syria’s recovery, including addressing sanctions and other restrictions.”

On the same day, the EU pledged $6.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans towards the reconstruction. Natasha Franceschi, US deputy assistant secretary for the Levant and Syria, who was also present during the meeting, did not disclose any further aid assistance to Syria on behalf of the U.S. government as they ”expect that other nations are going to help shoulder the financial burden.”

”You need international assistance to rebuild the main cities of Damascus, Aleppo, and Homs. All assistance is needed and it should not be conditional. Aid [and sanctions] are a tool of the U.S. government to have leverage with the new government –this is the problem,” says Daher.

According to Reuters, during the donor conference in Brussels, the U.S. gave the new Syrian government a list of demands to partially lift some sanctions. These include the destruction of remaining chemical weapon stockpiles, collaboration on counter-terrorism efforts, creating a liaison office to help on the search of Austin Tice, the U.S journalist who disappeared in Syria over a decade ago, and barring foreign fighters to take on senior government roles among others. 

Given that the EU is hosting millions of Syrian refugees who fled the country in the 2010s, it has an interest in stabilizing Syria so member states can legally begin returning refugees. On the other hand, the U.S., which only accepted 18,000 Syrian refugees during the height of the war, has its sights on accomplishing Israel’s policy goals on Syria. Both blocs have different policy interests when it comes to the future of Syria.

”There are contradictions [between the U.S and] the EU when it comes to Syria. The EU sees the lifting of sanctions will allow the return of Syrian refugees,” states Daher. On the other hand, he believes that ”the US government is pressuring Syria to make a deal with Israel and to weaken the region to seek normalization between the region and Israel.”

It’s not all about the money

Ahmed Al-Shaara is confronted with the nearly-impossible task of reuniting a country where social divisions run deep after fourteen years of brutal civil war. Alawites, Kurds, Christians, and Druze are some of the minorities inhabiting Syria, all wary of the steps Al-Shaara’s government may follow. In February, the government launched the ‘national dialogue conference,’ in which roughly 600 people from across the country, including minorities and women, were invited to the presidential palace in Damascus to discuss the political reconstruction of the country. Furthermore, after a delay of one month, on March 29, Al-Shaara unveiled the new transitional government, which includes a Christian woman, an Alawite, and a member of the Druze community. It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to bring different sects onboard the new government’s vision for Syria.

In the meantime, Al-Shaara has reached a deal with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who control the north east part of the country —where most of the country’s oil reserves are located and the majority of Kurds live, to integrate the group under the Syrian Ministry of Defence and achieve a ceasefire in the east side of the country, where there have been clashes between the SDF and armed groups loyal to the government in Damascus. Shortly after, the interim President signed the draft of a new constitution which, in theory, will saveguard freedom of expression, press, or minorities, and women rights, with Islamic law as the base of Syria’s legal system. Additionally, he has established five-year presidential terms with promises of elections within the next five years. He stated he hoped the constitution would open a new era in Syria ”where we replace oppression with justice.”

Yet, the path towards reconciliation will be anything but straightforward. Already there is internal conflict along sectarian lines. The Assads came from and privileged the Alawite community during their rule, but are no longer in power. At the beginning of March, after weeks of revenge killings and kidnappings targeting the Alawite community, Alawite armed groups loyal to Assad ambushed HTS-led security forces in the coastal regions, home to many Alawite communities. This sparked a brutal counter insurgency operation in which HTS, foreign mercenaries, and other armed groups from all over the country with resentment towards the Alawite community rushed in to fight the remnant of the regime. This resulted in over 803 extrajudicial killings and mass executions between March 6 and March 10, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a human rights organization documenting human rights abuses in Syria. Motivated by revenge and sectarianism, the killings also claimed the lives of non-combatants, including women, children, medical personnel, humanitarian workers, and journalists.

”You have remnants of the regime that create instability, especially in rural areas. HTS is also responsible because of their policies: lack of inclusivity in consolidating their power and not tackling sectarian issues, there hasn’t been transitional justice because they have no interest in that because [HTS] should also be prosecuted for their crimes, especially Ahmed Al-Shaara and other commanders,” says Daher.

These killings have fueled skepticism about Al-Shaara’s true intentions among various groups that have yet to align themselves with Damascus. This has been the case of the Druze community, who has historically enjoyed some level of autonomy from Damascus, in the southern province of Sweida bordering Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri, the spiritual leader of the Druze community, has so far rejected unifying the Druze community with the central government in Damascus calling the new constitution ”dictatorial.”

In the city of Sweida, home to the Druze community, after a minute of silence held at a student-led protest against the indiscriminate killings of Alawites, Shaza al-Khatib, a 22-year-old medical student said  “[Alawites] were killed in the worst possible ways, and sadly the bloodshed is still happening even after the old regime fell. I have no trust right now. I’ll criminalize the defense ministry now just like I [criminalized] the old regime. This ministry doesn’t represent us, they killed people who trusted them and surrendered their weapons. As a Syrian, I am scared we will be killed just because we are Druze.”

Despite my meeting with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajri at his residence in Sweida, he refused to provide any on-the-record comments on his views regarding the role of the Druze community in post-Assad Syria.

Israel has joined the game

Since the fall of Bashar, tensions between the Druze, who enjoyed certain privileges under the regime, and HTS, in the role of Syria’s transitional government, have been on the rise. At the beginning of March, there were four days of clashes between Druze armed groups and HTS in Jaramana, a suburb of the capital majorly inhabited by the Druze community. Israel, which illegally occupies the Golan Heights (where a sizeable Druze community lives), claimed it would intervene to ”prevent harm to their Druze brothers in Syria.” 

Since the fall of Assad, Israel has seized more territory adjacent to the illegally-occupied Golan Heights, striked different military sites across Syria, and declared a non-militarized zone between Damascus and its border under the pretext of ‘security concerns.’

”Conflict with Israel is not only slowing down the reconstruction of Syria but destroying more of it”, continues Daher. ”The Israeli government is trying to destabilize the new Syrian government. There is a long history of Israel trying to instrumentalize sectarian differences —it is not new at all. Israel is opposed to democratization of the region and this has been done with support of the U.S..”

He further emphasized that “If you democratize the region, you have[more] solidarity with Palestine. The day they announced a ceasefire in Gaza, you had demonstrations in Syria in favour of Palestine. The Assad regime had a policy of stopping any group from stating they want to liberate the Golan Heights. If you democratize the Middle East, that would force governments to have a more radical opinion of Israel. When people protest in favour of Palestine, they also protest against their country’s complicity with Israel and the U.S.. Israel knows that if you have more democracy, you have more opposition.”

In Sweida, Amer Alba, a commander of the Sweida Military Council —a Druze armed group formed last February by former soldiers and officials of Assad’s regime to protect the Druze community— welcomed me at one of their sites. The setting is stark, with assault rifles, .50 caliber machine guns, and rocket launchers surrounding him. The group has been accused of having pro-Israeli views.

”[HTS] didn’t respect its people, not a child, not a woman, it’s like they’re slaughtering sheep. Al-Shaara is not different from the old regime,” says Alba. ”We will never surrender our weapons to killers and mafia like HTS. I refuse dealing with them or their existence in Sweida. There will be a waterfall of blood in the governorate [if government forces arrive]. If Israel had not intervened in Jaramana, it would’ve been a massacre just like in the coast —we will collaborate with any state that will protect our people. Sadly HTS are rejecting our existence in this country.”

The International Policy Journal has not been able to independently verify how Israel intervened in Jaramana beyond statements given by government officials.

At the local market, Marwan al-Srekhy, a 58-year-old vendor believes that the Druze community has majoritarily rejected Israel’s interference in Syria. ”The people of Sweida in general are with the government. [We support] unifying all of Syria’s groups —every citizen wants this. We want to be a part of the government and under the same flag, but [they] need to give citizens their rights,” the 58-year-old explains.

He continues, ”We don’t have anything against the current president but the people around him are bad. The government should include every group of people, but this government does not. Religion is for God and the homeland is for everyone.”

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