Rime Allaf

Author of It Started in Damascus - How the Long Syrian Revolution Reshaped Our World (represented by @DHAbooks).
Geopolitics & Diplomacy & Communications.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Days before Assad fled Syria and his violent 54-year regime collapsed in December 2024, my book nearly fully written, I could not have imagined I would be there myself almost a year later, with my book, on the day of its release.

It Started in Damascus, in bookshops as of today.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Quelle triste nouvelle. L'artiste franco-iranienne Marjane Satrapi, que je suivais et admirais depuis la parution de Persepolis, son œuvre devenue légendaire, est décédée.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Under Hafez Assad in the 80s, they did the same to renowned opposition figure Michel Kilo.

[Rena Netjes [email protected] @RenaNetjes]

A Syrian Christian says here that he was detained by the Assad regime on the accusation that he is a Muslim Brotherhood member.

Two years ago in Ya'qoubiya, Idlib, I met a Syrian Christian who had been imprisoned for seven years on the same accusation.
https://t.co/SQFtOtS7S1

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Remember when Israel's Mossad helped Assad regime war criminal General Khaled Halabi enter Austria and settle there for a nice retirement? He is the most senior Syrian former official to face justice in Europe, and his trial and that of his associate, Lt. Col. Musab Abu Rukbah, starts today in Vienna.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Brecant

[World of Statistics @stats_feed]

🇬🇧 If the UK decided to rejoin the EU, what should it be called?

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

This family appeared on our Syrian feeds in early 2013 when the Assad regime arrested them all after Dr. Rania Abbasi (a dentist known because she was also a chess champion) and her husband dared give humanitarian assistance to those in need.
The National Commission for Missing Persons confirmed today "with a high degree of certainty" that the 6 children, then aged 2 to 14, were killed.
The genocidal maniac responsible for this crime and that of millions of others lives luxuriously in Moscow.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

@1962Wren It came up in my Facebook memories today. Mind you, nearly every day brings up something of the sort, when as I posted nearly everything that happened for years.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Turns out there was no tipping point in Syria, only atrocities of increasing magnitude over the years. This headline from The Times was 14 years ago, after the Houla massacre in May 2012, one of the first large scale slaughters that led to 0 repercussions for the Assad regime.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

@Ste_Ravagnan Hope we get to share much more over time, in art and in democratic ideals, and may the next 80 years be even better!

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

5 hours of magic, and one of the wildest matches ever at a Grand Slam today, worthy of a final. Roland Garros is my Prozac! Djokovic is still the GOAT and played fantastically at the age of 39, with a temperature of 33 degrees in Paris, and Fonseca is a STAR at the age of 19, beating his idol in 5 breathtaking sets. What a wonderful tennis day!

[ᴅʀ. ʜ.ᴀ. ʜᴇʟʟʏᴇʀ 🖖🏾 ⚜️ @hahellyer]

The Arab Peace Initiative is 24 years old. Full normalization — Arab world, every OIC member — on the table since 2002. Terms: Israeli withdrawal, a Palestinian state. Israel has said no every time. DC never talks about that. It should be the starting point of every conversation.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Syria has been invited to the G7 summit in Évian next month, shortly after the EU unblocked its Cooperation Agreement. A vote of confidence in Sharaa, no doubt, but also a clear delineation of expectations from the Syrian state on institution building, governance and stability.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

That's what we like to hear!
Syrian Education Minister Mohammed Abdul Rahman Turko said sustainable development depends on equal access to education and safe learning environments, during Syria’s participation in the Education World Forum 2026 in London this week.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Is this really any different than it ever was?
In 2010, Israel raided the Mavi Marmara flotilla in international waters, killing 10 peaceful activists & wounding many. They too were trying to bring humanitarian aid to Palestinians and to break the interminable blockade on Gaza.

[איתמר בן גביר @itamarbengvir]

ככה אנחנו מקבלים את תומכי הטרור

Welcome to Israel 🇮🇱

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Until yesterday, it had been more than 44 years since a Syrian president had publicly apologized to his country.

On May 19, 2026, Ahmad Sharaa apologized in a filmed and publicized call following his father's tactless and derogatory remarks about Deir Ezzor people during an interview. On September 29, 1981, Hafez Assad apologized (or at least pretended to) following his brother's violent assault on women in the heart of Damascus with his paramilitary group, the Defense Brigades - سرايا الدفاع.

Sharaa neither encouraged nor expected his father's comments, an author who speaks in no official capacity. Assad, in contrast, had empowered his brother Rifat, then the second strongest man in Syria politically and militarily, and waited several hours before reining him in and making a surprise televised speech to the nation that evening, only after he felt things had possibly gone too far.

I describe that incident in my book as a defining moment of the Assad regime's growing impunity as it sowed fear and division to break people's will to resist. Assad's apology was made as damage control, not regret.

In normal circumstances, a president should not be held responsible for what family members say or do. But these are not normal circumstances and Sharaa has put several brothers in positions of power, blurring the line between the official and the personal and allowing nepotism and cronyism to persist - so far - in Syria. His father's faux pas thus directly impacts his self-perception and projected image as a unifier.

That's why I think he did well to quickly take charge, despite his father's non-governmental affiliation. He wisely started his apology by saying his father's words offended him even before they offended the people of Deiz Ezzor, a statement laden with the sincerity and humility that were necessary after much uproar. That shows a different aspect of his leadership, one that most Syrians seem to appreciate and wish he would apply wherever people affiliated to him have caused offense or injury.

Bashar Assad, of course, was never wrong or responsible for anything during his 24+ years in power, so we will never know how he would have apologized, or whether he even knows how to express regret, real or fake.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

@chitowngirl1982 We're going to disagree on this: the sanctions are gone because Saudi Arabia pushed for it. Without MBS's clout and influence, we would still be waiting. There are many ways to flatter Trump and other heads of state; saying "our meeting left a fragrance" is not one of them.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Somewhere in Damascus, in an alternate universe, a seasoned director of communications at ministerial level, guiding Syrian presidential and governmental public affairs, would have questioned the intention behind this message and stopped this post.

[أحمد الشرع @AH_AlSharaa]

Some meetings leave an impression; ours apparently left a fragrance.
Thank you, Mr. President @realDonaldTrump, for your generosity and for topping up this precious gift. May the spirit of that meeting continue to shape a stronger relationship between Syria and the United States.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

@ReemRifai_ I am so sorry for your loss Reem, may he rest in peace. Deepest condolences to you and your family, may you all find strength in each other to surmount this tragedy.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

@chitowngirl1982 I don't agree that Syria calling his perfume a "precious gift" is having any effect on Israeli attacks or other strategic US decisions, and find this post is not fitting for a presidential account.

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

@hmadsyria My bad, I keep forgetting

[Rime Allaf @rallaf]

Or maybe Syria's "anti-Israeli economic policies" could relate to Israel's continuing anti-Syrian expansionist military policies of regular airstrikes, expanding occupation, and forced displacement of people?

[Ariel Oseran أريئل أوسيران @ariel_oseran]

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has issued a decree revising the country's Customs Law, which reinforces the ban on importing Israeli goods into Syria. The decree continues anti-Israel economic policies under the previous Assad regime.

A Syrian source tells me that al-Sharaa is trying to strengthen his domestic support so that he will have strong internal legitimacy when dealing with Israel. "Al-Sharaa seeks to use this strong internal position to justify signing an agreement with Israel in the future," the source tells me.