Veneer Of Normality Developing In Syria’s Homs – OpEd

July 13, 2026 
By Arab News
By Chris Doyle

Key Takeaways:

Homs exemplifies Syria’s complex post-Assad recovery: Once the revolution’s epicenter, the city shows physical destruction (especially Khalidiya’s skeletal buildings), demographic shifts (displacements and resettlement from Idlib), and lingering communal distrust, yet surface-level normalcy is slowly returning.

Tentative signs of improvement: Electricity and fuel availability have markedly increased, the Homs refinery is operational, agriculture is reviving due to decent rains, and social life (weddings, cafes, World Cup viewings) is re-emerging with some expatriate returns.

Persistent deep challenges: High unemployment, cash-only economy, security operations in Alawi areas, unresolved trauma from mass killings and sieges, and fragile foundations mean recovery remains slow and vulnerable despite cautious optimism.

Syria has rarely featured in the news of late. Perhaps that is a relief. Syrians joke that, during the US-Israeli war on Iran, Syria was once again one of the safer areas in the Middle East. Visitors to Damascus have increased, including President Emmanuel Macron of France. Yet the warnings are there, as two small bombs in the heart of the capital showed.

Yet to understand the ebb and flow, the highs and lows of Syria in 2026, more must head out of Damascus. Capital bias is a frequent factor in postwar situations but it does warp a proper understanding of the situation. The center of Damascus escaped the worst of the war and has benefited from a mild revival since 2024. Diplomats and journalists, however, are travel shy. They should not be.

Syria’s third city, Homs, offers a compelling tutorial in post-Assad dynamics. At a personal level, it is the home city of my wife’s family, which has provided me with privileged insights for a non-Syrian.

Homs was, in the early years of the revolution against the Assad regime, the epicenter of opposition, the capital of the revolution. It paid a heavy price for this, as a visit to the expanded Muslim cemetery to the north of the city reveals.

As in Damascus, the center of the city wears a fake normality. Motorbikes zoom around you like a swarm of angry hornets but, for the most part, life seems superficially normal. The iconic clock tower is at the core. Everyone remembers the protests there and the infamous clock tower massacre. Only minutes after passing this sight, I was chatting with a Syrian woman who lost three male members of her family in that atrocity. “Everyone here has had family members killed, arrested or disappeared. None of us were untouched,” she said.

But cross into Khalidiya, just north of the old city, and destruction on a ferocious scale hits you. Skeletal corpses of buildings have you questioning your assumptions about gravity. How do they still stand? A row of shops at ground level conduct normal trade, yet all the floors above them are mangled steel and concrete. At what point will it all come tumbling down?

Most of Homs can see the Gardenia Towers or, as they have come to be known in the city, “the death towers.” These were unfinished building sites in 2011 but, for the regime’s forces, they had a macabre function. From there, they could lob shells down into the city and snipe passers-by at will. What happened to these soldiers? How can they live with themselves?

On the main road out west, a series of homes have just been demolished. It was Hezbollah that built these without permits. They will now make way for a redevelopment of the area of Al-Waer. The Lebanese group did so much to destroy Al-Waer, which endured one of the most inhuman sieges in the war years.

Yet, as much as the city has been physically reshaped, it has also been reshaped demographically. Having travelled there since 1990, I had known it as a peaceful city, one where different communities coexisted. The largest Christmas tree in the Middle East decorated its center. Muslims would celebrate Christian feast days and vice versa.

This has been upended. Many fled the city, typically to Lebanon. Some have returned but many are not prepared to do so yet. In their place, I hear that many have come from Idlib in the northwest and are looking to stay. Where once everyone knew and trusted their neighbors, a miasma of distrust now pervades the city.

Homs has two Alawi areas. They have faced struggles even after the departure of the Assad regime. These areas are surrounded by security checkpoints and frequent security operations. Suspicion remains on all sides.

It is a mixed picture. The green shoots of recovery are slowly emerging but it is a long and challenging road ahead. Electricity is not yet plentiful but there has been a massive improvement on the one to two hours a day of a few years ago. Fuel is available most days. The major refinery at Homs is again belching out fumes, with long queues of tankers at the ready. Some of that fuel is again coming from Syria’s oil fields to the east. Expatriate Syrians are slowly coming back to visit families this summer, no doubt bringing a small injection of funds.

Yet it remains a cash economy. Syrians have to carry thick wads of cash to pay for necessities. Credit cards are forbidden, at least until US sanctions are fully lifted. Unemployment remains high, though several sectors of the economy are picking up. The rains this year have been decent, so many are returning to work in the agricultural sector, which, in the years of civil strife, had been largely abandoned.

Many want to be positive. We saw wedding parties. At one point, nobody celebrated anything. Crowds hover around giant screens to watch the World Cup. Cafes buzz. A veneer of normality is a start, even if it has shaky and vulnerable foundations.

Chris Doyle is director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding in London. X: @Doylech

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Arab News is Saudi Arabia's first English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1975 by Hisham and Mohammed Ali Hafiz. Today, it is one of 29 publications produced by Saudi Research & Publishing Company (SRPC), a subsidiary of Saudi Research & Marketing Group (SRMG).
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