Euroviews. When considering Syria, the world should be patient

Syria is a mix of hope and fragility. Its people, including those separated and exiled from their homes for so long, are rightly celebrating the end of a 14-year brutal conflict that killed so many and ruined countless lives.

The war that wrought so much destruction has left Syria barely able to function. What we need now is a mix of patience and generous assistance so Syria can get back on its feet and avoid a reversion to more chaos and difficulty.

When I visited Syria in mid-December, the joy was palpable. You could sense the gratitude and tentative optimism that the millions of people who have suffered would finally get the chance to chart a future that includes peace, stability and security.

Yet in the eyes of the people I spoke with, I could also sense apprehension, a worry that is entirely understandable. Even before the fall of the prior regime, nearly 17 million people in Syria needed humanitarian assistance, 4.2 million in the northwest alone.

And now, fully into winter, about 600,000 people are newly displaced from homes. The economy, reliant on cash, is in shambles. Supply chains are very dysfunctional, commercial activities have been disrupted, and critical services are barely present.

Everyone in Syria feels the impact. Getting access to even the basic essentials is difficult and few can afford much more than that: about 90% of Syrians live in poverty.

Even those with professional backgrounds are suffering. A young resident doctor at a public hospital told me she had to take on other work because she could not get by on her salary of the equivalent of $50 (€47.9) a month.

The humanitarian infrastructure in Syria is at its limits, overstretched and severely underfunded. It is weighed down by barriers put in by