Discontent is testing President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s ability to unify a country emerging from 14 years of conflict.

Syria’s parliament ‌has voted to abolish an al-Assad-era “terrorism” court and nullify the ⁠legal effects of ⁠its rulings, in one of the first significant legislative moves by the country’s new assembly.

The vote on Wednesday formalised the abolition of the court, which Syria’s new authorities had already treated as defunct, state-run Al-Ekhbariya TV reported.

The Counter-Terrorism Court, ⁠established in 2012, was used to prosecute thousands of Syrians for offences deemed “terrorism-related” ⁠under ousted former President Bashar al-Assad.

Wednesday’s vote came during the opening ⁠weeks of the first parliament formed since al-Assad was toppled. The chamber convened for the first time in July.

In June 2025, President Ahmed al-Sharaa issued a decree dismissing 67 judges who had served in what he described at the time as the “abolished ‌Counter-Terrorism Court”.

Syria’s March 2025 constitutional declaration had also called for abolishing the effects of what it described as unjust rulings issued by the court, including returning confiscated property.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee said in 2024 that the 2012 law establishing the court failed to adequately provide key judicial guarantees and raised concerns over arbitrary detention, torture or ill-treatment, and the court’s independence.

The vote is among the assembly’s first major legislative decisions after it ‌spent its initial sessions establishing its internal rules and committees.

The 53-year-long rule of the al-Assad family ended on December 8, 2024, after a lightning 11-day offensive that took Syria and the world by surprise. With it ended a brutal police state, notorious for its use of torture and disappearances.

Kurdish discontent amid government integration deal

Hundreds of oil tanker trucks were stranded in northeastern Syria’s Kurdish region on Wednesday after demonstrators blocked a major highway near the town of Tal Tamr in protest over rising fuel prices.

Discontent has been building in the Kurdish region amid a push to integrate a once-powerful Kurd-led armed force – the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – into Syria’s army and bring them under the control of the central government.

The integration agreement with the SDF, minted in August, has been widely regarded as a victory for al-Sharaa’s government, but discontent is testing the president’s ability to unify a country emerging from 14 years of conflict.

Kurds, who made up about 10 percent of Syria’s population of 23 million before the civil war began in 2011, were long marginalised under the country’s al-Assad dynasty. During the war, they carved out a de facto autonomous zone in the northeast.

When northeast Syria – including its oilfields – was under the SDF’s control, fuel was heavily subsidised. After the central government took control, it removed those subsidies, leading to a price hike.

Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir is scheduled to be questioned in parliament on Thursday over the increase in fuel prices.

On Sunday, the government further hiked petrol prices by about 30 percent and diesel by 40 percent, citing rising global fuel prices due to the US-Israel war on Iran as well as repair work at the Baniyas refinery on the country’s coast.

Demonstrators shut down the M4 highway near the town of Tal Tamr, blocking trucks bringing oil from the Qamishli and Rmeilan oilfields, and announced that they would only reopen the route if the price increases were reversed.

Additionally, students in the cities of Qamishli and Hasakah staged mass protests in recent weeks over a government decree that makes Kurdish an official language of instruction for the first time in Syrian history but only provides for three classes a week in the language. By contrast, Kurds had set up a school system teaching mostly in Kurdish.

With the new post-war government reasserting control over the northeast, Kurdish communities have been anxious about losing the rights they had under self-rule. Al-Sharaa has promised constitutional protection for Kurdish language and political rights.

In January, the integration deal reached between the central government in Damascus and the SDF halted weeks of fighting. While some Kurdish politicians hail the integration as a door for the Kurds to participate in building the new Syria and to demand their rights through the constitution, others consider the step a result of pressure from Turkiye and the United States and potentially harmful for Kurdish interests.