Lebanese PM, speaker of UAE advisory parliament discuss regional issues

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Saqr Ghobash, the UAE Federal National Council speaker, in Beirut. (WAM)
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Updated 24 April 2025
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Lebanese PM, speaker of UAE advisory parliament discuss regional issues

  • Saqr Ghobash congratulated Nawaf Salam on forming a Lebanese government in February
  • Salam praised the UAE for promoting regional stability, development 

LONDON: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam discussed the strong fraternal relations between Abu Dhabi and Beirut with Saqr Ghobash, speaker of the UAE Federal National Council, on Thursday.

Ghobash made an official visit to Lebanon, where he extended the wishes of the Emirati leadership to Lebanon and its people for continued progress, prosperity and development, the Emirates News Agency reported.

Salam and Ghobash discussed ways to strengthen and expand cooperation in various cultural, economic and humanitarian fields, and exchanged views on several regional and international issues of mutual interest, WAM added.

Ghobash congratulated Salam on forming a Lebanese government in February and reaffirmed the UAE’s strong support for Lebanon’s sovereignty, stability and development. He said that the UAE is committed to providing unwavering support to the Lebanese people.

Salam praised the UAE for promoting stability and development across the region, and expressed appreciation for its continuous support of Lebanon during recent challenging times, WAM reported.


Can sanctions relief deliver quick wins for Syria’s economy?

Updated 7 sec ago
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Can sanctions relief deliver quick wins for Syria’s economy?

  • A major boost came when Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced they would jointly fund salary support for Syrian state employees
  • Experts want legal clarity and investor safeguards to be put in place quickly for loans, grants and investments to start flowing in

LONDON: Like a relic from another era, its promise long faded, the Syrian pound still lingers in the wallets of shopkeepers and shoppers in Damascus. Yet, green shoots of hope are sprouting across the war-weary nation.

That rekindled sense of optimism owes much to US President Donald Trump’s pledge to ease sanctions and signs of regional support for Syria’s economic recovery.

A major boost came on May 31, when Saudi Arabia and Qatar announced they would jointly fund salary support for Syrian state employees, many of whom have struggled for years on paltry and irregular wages.

The pledge builds on earlier Gulf efforts to stabilize Syria’s economy and signals a deeper commitment to reconstruction. On May 12, Saudi Arabia and Qatar settled Syria’s $15.5 million in arrears to the World Bank’s International Development Association — a key step that reopened access to loans and grants.

The international backing comes at a crucial moment. After 14 years of war and isolation, Syria’s economy has nearly collapsed. Exports have dried up, foreign reserves have fallen to just $200 million, the currency has lost 99 percent of its value, and more than 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line.

Trump’s March 13 announcement in Riyadh sparked spontaneous celebrations in the capital’s streets. But even amid the jubilation, many Syrians recognized that true recovery would take more than a policy shift — and much longer to materialize.

“Partial sanctions relief sends a political signal, not a legal guarantee,” Harout Ekmanian, public international lawyer at Foley Hoag LLP in New York, told Arab News.

“Investors remain cautious, and there is a risk of overcompliance with any remaining sanctions that are in place, particularly in sensitive sectors like banking,” he said.

He added that the need for “a complete lifting of the tangled web of sanctions to facilitate investment from compliance sensitive investors from the US and Europe” cannot be overstated.

Delaney Simon, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group’s US program, concurred. “If Trump is actually planning to lift all or even most sanctions on Syria, he is doing something virtually unprecedented in the recent history of sanctions relief,” he told Arab News.

He cautions, though, that “lifting sanctions is not straightforward.”

“It will require a massive bureaucratic and possibly political lift in Washington, including mobilization of different arms of the US government including the Treasury, State and Commerce departments and Congress,” Simon said.

Even with formal relief, private firms may be slow to re-engage. “Relief on paper might not translate to relief in practice,” he said. “The private sector may be wary of engaging with Syria once the restrictions are lifted.”

Despite those concerns, Simon urges patience. “President Trump has a tough road ahead to make good on this commitment, but he should persevere,” he said. “He is right that lifting sanctions gives Syria a chance at greatness.”

For now, such an outcome remains uncertain. The most severe Western sanctions were imposed in 2011 by the US, EU, UK, and others in response to the Assad regime’s crackdown on protesters.

Following the ousting of Bashar Assad in December, the new interim government, led by President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, inherited a damaged economy and the sanctions that helped undermine it.

Washington’s measures were among the most sweeping: a near-total trade embargo, asset freezes, and secondary sanctions targeting foreign firms doing business with Syria. The Caesar Act of 2020 imposed additional restrictions, further isolating Assad’s regime.

Signs of change came on May 23, when the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued General License 25, lifting most of those restrictions. The relief, however, comes with conditions: political reform, respect for human rights, and counterterrorism commitments from Damascus.

Soon after, the EU and UK followed suit, underscoring a broader Western alignment with the Al-Sharaa government. Still, experts say sanctions relief alone will not revive an economy ravaged by years of conflict.

A key next step is rejoining the SWIFT financial network. Bankers in Damascus expect the connection to be restored within weeks, enabling smoother international transactions and potentially unlocking billions in remittances from Syrians abroad.

Nevertheless, global banks remain cautious, awaiting clearer legal guidance from Western governments. “Syria’s financial system is a black box that nobody understands,” Stephen Fallon, a banking and sanctions expert, told The Economist newsmagazine. “If I run a Western bank and I accidentally receive funds from terrorists, it’s me the American regulators will come after.”

Foley Hoag’s Ekmanian sees potential short-term gains but says they depend on legal clarity. “Sanctions relief can act as a pressure valve by easing immediate economic distress, but without legal clarity on asset recovery and investor protections, quick wins may remain elusive,” he said.

Access to frozen reserves could help stabilize liquidity. But long-term recovery, he added, depends on structural reform and investor confidence — both difficult to achieve.

Syria’s central bank holds just $200 million in foreign exchange reserves, Reuters news agency reported — a steep decline from the $18.5 billion the International Monetary Fund estimated before the war. It also retains nearly 26 tonnes of gold, currently valued at over $2.6 billion.

The interim government hopes to unlock up to $400 million in frozen overseas assets to fund reforms, including recent salary hikes for public workers. But the actual value, location, and timeline for repatriation remain unclear.

Switzerland has identified $118 million in local banks, according to Reuters, while The Syria Report estimates another $217 million is in the UK.

Ekmanian emphasized that even modest gains “hinge on the credibility of the sanctions relief architecture.” He noted that “if businesses fear snapback sanctions or regulatory ambiguity, even the thawing of restrictions won’t translate into meaningful economic movement.”

Predictability, he said, underpins international investment. “International investment law tells us that predictability is key,” he said.

“While sanctions relief can unlock trade routes and aid, without legal assurances and investment protection commitments, Syria risks a piecemeal recovery vulnerable to geopolitical shifts.”

Beyond legal guarantees, Syria must overhaul its domestic institutions. “Legal frameworks must catch up with policy signals,” Ekmanian said.

“Re-engagement with Syria under international economic law requires more than opening bank accounts,” he explained. “It demands credible reforms to the domestic legal framework, judiciary, arbitration frameworks, debt transparency, and governance of sovereign assets.”

He also warned of legal risks that could deter investors: a growing docket of war-related tort and atrocity litigation in European and US courts under universal jurisdiction and terrorism exceptions to sovereign immunity.

“Even with various US sanctions and EU Council Regulation 36/2012 partially relaxed, this needs to be accompanied by steps to ensure that the new government and Syrian people are not unduly burdened by the prior regime’s liabilities,” he said.

Ultimately, he said, “modest sanctions relief can ease humanitarian transactions and marginally bolster foreign-exchange buffers, but it cannot deliver a durable uplift in trade, investment or debt restructuring without parallel movement on governance, transparency, and human-rights benchmarks that anchor international economic law.”

Syria’s external debt is another major obstacle, estimated by the new government to be between $20 billion and $23 billion — high relative to its 2023 GDP of about $17.5 billion. Much of it was accrued under Assad through military and oil-related loans from allies such as Iran and Russia, complicating restructuring efforts.

Despite these hurdles, some see progress. “US sanctions relief will be a major step not only towards economic recovery, but also towards ending the cycles of violence that have trapped Syria for over a decade,” said Nanar Hawach, a senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group.

He argued that economic collapse has contributed to insecurity by weakening services, deepening grievances and driving recruitment into armed groups. “Lifting sanctions could help reverse that dynamic,” he told Arab News.

Syria’s post-Assad transition remains unsettled. Renewed violence has erupted in several areas, including rural Damascus, Homs, and the Alawite-dominated coast, now largely controlled by HTS, the group that led the offensive to oust Assad.

The group has since absorbed rival factions, some still having Daesh-aligned extremists in their ranks. Elsewhere, sectarian clashes have hit Homs and rural Damascus, while the interim government struggles to contain unrest among Druze in the south and Kurds in the northeast.

Still, the psychological effect of sanctions relief may prove powerful. “The most immediate benefit is psychological: a clear boost in investor confidence,” Hawach said.

“Even when sanctions were partially eased in the past, most banks and companies, especially international ones, avoided Syria out of fear of getting blacklisted,” he said. “Simply put, the word ‘Syria’ was enough to trigger overcompliance,” but a shift is noticeable now.

He noted that some regional investors are already engaging with Syria. “Some have already taken the decision to invest and are now looking into the technical aspects of it,” he said. “There’s a lot of momentum. It’s looking very promising.”

Since May 13, several regional investors have announced major projects. On May 29, Syria signed a strategic agreement with a consortium led by Qatar’s UCC Holding to build four gas power plants and a 1,000-megawatt solar facility — a $7 billion investment expected to meet over half the country’s electricity needs.

In another sign of momentum, DP World, the Dubai-based ports operator, signed an $800 million agreement to develop and expand the port of Tartus — the largest foreign investment in Syria since sanctions relief began.

Diaspora entrepreneurs are also stepping in. Mohamed Ghazal, managing director of Startup Syria, a community-led initiative supporting Syrian entrepreneurs, says Syrian startup founders are targeting key sectors for recovery: infrastructure, public services, agriculture, digital services, and food security.

“These sectors can generate jobs quickly, particularly in construction, agriculture, and tech,” Ghazal told Arab News. He also cited healthcare, education, and fintech as areas for investment, especially given Syria’s push to reconnect with global financial systems.

“Vocational training, online learning, digital health services — these are where youth and diaspora professionals can really contribute,” he said.

As Syria begins its journey back into the international community, the road ahead is still rocky and the challenges daunting. Yet, for the first time in years, the nation appears to be moving toward a new era — one shaped not by conflict and sanctions, but by constructive diplomacy, reform and cautious optimism.


Syria reopens Lebanon border crossing for Eid Al-Adha travel

Updated 28 min 56 sec ago
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Syria reopens Lebanon border crossing for Eid Al-Adha travel

  • Parliament tackles drug smuggling crisis amid health safety concerns

BEIRUT: Syrian authorities announced the reopening of Al-Arida border crossing with Lebanon, which closed in December 2024 due to an Israeli raid during the war with Hezbollah.

Syria’s Land and Sea Ports General Authority said in a statement that the border crossing located in Rif Tartus was reopening.

It informed travelers that Al-Arida border crossing would be manned on Tuesday morning, despite ongoing restoration and maintenance work, to facilitate movement during Eid Al-Adha.

The crossing is located on Lebanon’s northern border and connects the ports of Tripoli and Tartus.

Israeli warplanes struck the crossing on Nov. 27, 2024.

Ten days after the Syrian authorities removed the rubble and rehabilitated the crossing, it was struck again by Israel, leading to its permanent closure.

Dozens of Syrian families who had fled to Lebanon are now returning to their villages in Syria, while legal crossings are witnessing active overland tourism between Syria and Lebanon.

The two countries share five legal border crossings, including the Masnaa crossing, which is the closest to Damascus, and the Jdeidet Yabous crossing located in the Rif Dimashq Governorate.

Additionally, there is the Aboudieh crossing, which consists of a 45 km bridge passing through the Syrian village of Dabousieh, and the Jousieh crossing, situated in the Qusayr area of Rif Homs, which serves as the gateway from northern Bekaa to Homs and is located 40 km from the city.

The Talkalakh crossing in the Wadi Khaled area of northern Lebanon connects to Syrian territory in western Rif Homs, alongside Al-Arida crossing.

It was primarily designated for transporting goods and trucks carrying phosphate and sand from Syria to Lebanon, and other goods in the other direction.

Despite the measures that Syrian and Lebanese authorities have started to implement to regulate border crossings and close many illegal routes in the mountainous border regions, smuggling activities have resumed on both sides.

Recently, the Syndicate of Pharmaceutical Importers in Lebanon raised concerns, urging action to combat the issue of illegal, smuggled, and counterfeit medicines flooding the Lebanese market.

The Lebanese judiciary is continuing its investigations into the smuggling of medications from Egypt and Turkiye into Lebanon.

So far, they have detained several Lebanese and Syrian nationals suspected of being involved in these operations.

The investigations have focused on around 50 pharmacists and 60 pharmaceutical traders in Lebanon.

The Parliamentary Health Committee held a meeting dedicated to the issue of smuggled and counterfeit medicines.

Lebanon previously lifted subsidies on medicines — except for those designated for patients with chronic illnesses — during the economic crisis that struck the country in 2019. 

Public Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine, Justice Minister Adel Nassar, and representatives from the Interior and Defense Ministries participated in the meeting, along with the heads of relevant security agencies.

MP Bilal Abdallah told Arab News the committee thoroughly discussed methods to regulate the pharmaceutical market in Lebanon and safeguard citizens from medication smuggling operations.

“The danger arises from smuggled medicines, which may be expired, improperly stored, or non-compliant with safety standards.

“This poses a serious threat to patients, particularly since smuggling often targets costly medications intended for cancer patients and individuals with chronic illnesses.

“The Ministry of Health has documented dozens of cases where citizens’ health deteriorated after consuming such medicines.”
 
Abdallah, who is both a legislator and a practicing physician, stated that the parliamentary committee had instructed customs and security forces to enhance inspection protocols.

He highlighted the positive influences of Syria’s political transition, stating that “Syrian authorities are now more effectively monitoring the situation and preventing smuggling through unauthorized border points.”

The Lebanese Pharmaceutical Importers Association, participating in parliamentary hearings, confirmed that all medications registered with the Health Ministry and distributed by international manufacturers are continuously available in Lebanese markets.

However, the association emphasized an important distinction regarding smuggled substances, clarifying that “products entering Lebanon through illegal channels cannot be regarded as legitimate pharmaceuticals, as authentic medications require verified component analysis and official documentation submitted to authorized regulatory bodies.”


Syrian government and Kurdish force exchange prisoners

Updated 38 min 22 sec ago
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Syrian government and Kurdish force exchange prisoners

  • The 400 prisoners are released as part of a deal reached earlier this year between the two sides

ALEPPO, Syria: Syrian authorities and a Kurdish-led force exchanged Monday more than 400 prisoners as part of a deal reached earlier this year between the two sides.
The exchange in the northern city of Aleppo is a step in the process of confidence- building measures between the government in Damascus and the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. A similar exchange took place in April.
Mulham Al-Akidi, the deputy governor of Aleppo province, said 470 prisoners were released by both sides adding that the exchange “aims to reduce tensions on the ground.” He added that if there are more prisoners they will be released in the near future.
Yasser Mohammed Hakim said he was detained six months ago after he drove into an SDF-controlled area by mistake. The man added that he was held in a jail where members of the Daesh group are held in Syria.
“They put us with the biggest terrorists,” Hakim told The Associated Press after his release by the SDF. “I am a civilian who took the wrong road. I lost six months of my life.”
In March, Syria’s interim government signed a deal with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main US-backed force there into the Syrian army.
Since the deal was signed, the clashes between the SDF and the Syrian National Army, a coalition of Turkiye-backed groups, almost stopped in northern Syria after months of fighting that left dozens killed or wounded on both sides.
Syria’s new rulers are struggling to exert their authority across the country and reach political settlements with different ethnic and religious groups in the war-torn nation.


UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

Updated 02 June 2025
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UN chief calls for probe into deaths near Gaza aid site

  • Antonio Guterres says he is appalled by reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid
  • Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah

GAZA: UN chief Antonio Guterres called Monday for an independent investigation into the killing of dozens of Palestinians near a US-backed aid center in Gaza after rescuers blamed the deaths on Israeli fire and the military denied any involvement.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said Israeli gunfire killed at least 31 people and wounded 176 near the aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, with AFP photos showing civilians at the scene carting away bodies and medics at nearby hospitals reporting a deluge of gunshot wound victims.
The Israeli military, however, denied its troops had fired on civilians in or around the center, and both it and the aid site’s administrator accused Hamas of sowing false rumors.
“I am appalled by the reports of Palestinians killed and injured while seeking aid in Gaza yesterday. It is unacceptable that Palestinians are risking their lives for food,” Guterres said in a statement, without assigning blame for the deaths.
“I call for an immediate and independent investigation into these events and for perpetrators to be held accountable.”
The Israeli government has cooperated with the group running the site, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to introduce a new mechanism for distributing aid in Gaza that has bypassed the longstanding UN-led system.
The UN has declined to work with the group out of concerns about its neutrality, with some aid agencies saying it appears designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.
An eyewitness from the scene in Rafah, Sameh Hamuda, 33, had told AFP he was headed toward the aid site amid a crowd of other Palestinians when “quadcopter drones opened fire on the people, and tanks started shooting.”
“Several people were killed right in front of me,” he said.
Another witness, Abdullah Barbakh, 58, also told AFP “the army opened fire from drones and tanks.”
Following the reports, the Israeli army said an initial inquiry found its troops “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site.”
Army spokesman Effie Defrin said in a video message that “Hamas is doing its best, its utmost, to stop us from” distributing aid, and vowed to “investigate each one of those allegations” against Israeli troops.
“I urge you not to believe every rumor spread by Hamas,” he added.
GHF also denied any deaths or injuries took place, adding that “these fake reports have been actively fomented by Hamas.”
Israel has come under increasing international pressure to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza following a more than two-month blockade on aid that was only recently eased.
The UN has warned the entire population of the territory is facing the risk of famine.
It has also reported recent incidents of aid being looted, including by armed individuals.


Talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and the return of hostages taken by Hamas during its October 2023 attack that triggered the war have failed to produce a breakthrough.
Militants took 251 hostages during the attack, 57 of whom remain in Gaza, including 34 who the Israeli military says are dead.
After the two sides failed to agree on a new ceasefire proposal last week, Hamas said it was ready to “immediately begin a round of indirect negotiations to reach an agreement on the points of contention.”
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, meanwhile, said he had told the army “to continue forward in Gaza against all targets, regardless of any negotiations.”
Since a brief truce collapsed in March, Israel has intensified its operations to destroy Hamas.
On Monday, Gaza’s civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said 14 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Gaza, “including six children and three women, in addition to more than 20 missing individuals still under the rubble.”
“This house has been bombed before... and people were martyred previously,” resident Mousa Al-Bursh told AFP.
“The house primarily belongs to the Al-Bursh family, but it shelters many others, more than one family, and we don’t know the number of victims inside.”
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,201 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war’s overall toll to 54,470, mostly civilians.
Hamas’s 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.


Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

Updated 02 June 2025
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Nearly 41% of kidney patients died in Gaza as Israel destroys major dialysis center

  • Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza
  • The facility was damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya

LONDON: Palestinian medical sources in the Gaza Strip revealed on Sunday that nearly half of the kidney failure patients in the coastal enclave have died since October 2023 amid ongoing Israeli attacks and restrictions on humanitarian and medical aid.

Israeli attacks on hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza barred 41 percent of kidney patients from accessing life-saving dialysis treatment, resulting in their deaths, according to the Wafa news agency.

On Saturday, Israeli forces destroyed the Noura Al-Kaabi Dialysis Center in northern Gaza, one of the few specialized facilities providing kidney dialysis to 160 patients.

Video footage appears to show Israeli military excavators completely demolishing the facility that was partly damaged amid the war and remained standing among the heavily ruined area of Beit Lahiya.

“The destruction of this center is a catastrophic blow to the health system,” a Palestinian medical source told Wafa, warning of dire consequences for the remaining kidney patients in Gaza.

“This is a disaster with consequences we cannot yet fully comprehend,” they added.