August 18, 2011 - Since the beginning of Ramadan in early August 2011, the Syrian regime has escalated efforts to repress the mass protests that have swept across the country since March. Security forces and loyalist units of the Syrian military launched brutal crackdowns on several of Syria’s major cities—and major centers of protest—including Hama, Homs, and Deir al-Zor. As a result of these actions, the death toll from five months of Syria’s uprising now exceeds 2,000. More than 13,000 Syrians have been arrested for participating in protests calling for an end to the Assad regime. Despite the regime’s massive use of force, however, mass protests continued across the country, with indications that even Damascus and Aleppo—cities that had previously not experienced significant protest activity—were beginning to stir. 

On August 18, 2011, President Barack Obama called on President Assad to step aside, “for the sake of the Syrian people.” The U.S. president also announced new “sanctions to deepen the financial isolation of the Assad regime and further disrupt its ability to finance a campaign of violence against the Syrian people.”

• Read President Obama's Statement
• USIP Experts Available for Comment on Syria
• USIP Mideast expert Steven Heydemann examines the reasons behind the regime's escalation of violence, the international community's response, and additional steps that the U.S. might take to pressure the Assad government

August 10, 2011 - Since the beginning of Ramadan in early August 2011, the Syrian regime has escalated efforts to repress the mass protests that have swept across the country since March. Security forces and loyalist units of the Syrian military launched brutal crackdowns on several of Syria’s major cities—and major centers of protest—including Hama, Homs, and Deir al-Zor. As a result of these actions, the death toll from five months of Syria’s uprising now exceeds 2,000. More than 13,000 Syrians have been arrested for participating in protests calling for an end to the Assad regime. Despite the regime’s massive use of force, however, mass protests continued across the country, with indications that even Damascus and Aleppo—cities that had previously not experienced significant protest activity—were beginning to stir.  

U.S., international, and Arab reactions to the Syrian regime’s ongoing repression also escalated in August. The U.S. expanded economic sanctions against Syria’s largest state-owned financial institution, the Syrian Commercial Bank. The European Union tightened sanctions, as well, adding an additional number of key Syrian officials to the EU’s sanctions list. The President of the U.N. Security Council issued a statement condemning violence committed by the Syrian government and calling for those responsible to be held to account. South Africa, Brazil, and India dispatched envoys to Syria to press for peaceful reform. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was also dispatched to Damascus to inform President Assad that Turkey had “run out of patience,” after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the Assad government for “turning its guns on its own people.” 

No less important, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Arab League issued statements critical of the Assad government, and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Italy withdrew their ambassadors from Syria. The Saudi government accompanied the withdrawal of its ambassador with an unusually harsh statement condemning the Syrian government’s use of force against its own citizens, and calling for an end to violence.

To date, the Assad regime has largely ignored international pressures and continued its campaign of repression against Syrian citizens. Yet its growing regional and international isolation, and the economic toll of the uprising, are giving rise to strains and pressures within the ruling coalition that may well prove increasingly difficult for the Assad family to contain. 

• Read about the implications of the uprisings in Syria on Lebanon

April 1, 2011 - Since the end of January 2011, Syria has witnessed what began as small and isolated incidents of popular protest, but what has burgeoned into larger-scale demonstrations across several cities in the face of harsh security crackdowns that killed many protesters. This unrest is unprecedented in the country which has been governed by the al-Assad family for 40 years, and has been under Emergency Law since 1963 when the still-ruling Ba’ath party took power in a violent coup. As is the case with the wave of protests sweeping the Arab world, and now referred to as the “Arab Spring,” protesters are demanding comprehensive reform of a corrupt and repressive system.