Syrian port city over time starts anew, keeping it afloat (7)

I believe the answer is:

latakia

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'syrian port' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'city over time starts anew keeping it afloat' is the wordplay.
'city over' becomes 'la' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'time' becomes 't' (abbreviation).
'starts' says to take the initial letters.
The first letters of 'anew keeping it afloat' is 'akia'.
'la'+'t'+'akia'='LATAKIA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for latakia that I've seen before include "Syrian port giving its name to a type of tobacco" , "Mediterranean port" , "Port of Syria" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.

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