Strategic neutrality: How Syria is winning in the Iran war

Syria's interim government, which came to power after ousting Bashar Assad in late 2024, has positioned itself as a strategic neutral actor in the Iran war by reinforcing borders, clamping down on weapons smuggling to Iranian proxies, and declining to formally protest US-Israeli use of Syrian airspace for strikes on Iran. The Syrian authorities are leveraging this neutrality to attract international investment in oil and gas transit infrastructure, energy exploration, and digital corridors, with the EU proposing to resume cooperation and Saudi Arabia preferring a fiber-optic cable route through Syria rather than Israel.