The Syrian regime is worried that the Iranian regime’s financial aid to Bashar al-Assad is being put under threat by plunging oil prices.
Businessmen and trade officials in Damascus fear Iran’s cash crisis could hurt the funding of their civil war and propping up their ailing currency, Reuters reported.
A senior Syrian trade official said: “If it had not been for Iranian support we could not have survived the crisis.
“It was Iranian support that has been the most important. In return, we are promising them more and more, and opening more and more doors for them to invest in Syria.”
Meanwhile, oil production in Syria, which is subject to US and European sanctions, has fallen sharply since the start of the conflict four years ago, and as insurgents occupying one third of the country have taken over energy installations.
The Iranian regime granted Syria a $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products in July last year, and another $1 billion went on non-oil products, officials and bankers said at the time.
But with the Syrian pound plunging by around 80 per cent since the civil war began in 2011, and a 50 per cent dip in the price of oil since June, Syria has sought reassurances that Tehran will maintain its funding.
The Iranian regime deposited $500-$750 million in Syria’s Central Bank more than a year ago that has been used by the authorities to help stabilise the currency, the bank has also sold dollars to shore up the pound, banks in the Syrian regime said.
But traders, bankers and businessmen agree that the drop in Iranian oil earnings will have ‘untold consequences’ on level of economic support in the long term.
A prominent member of the Damascus Chamber of Industry said: “The 50 per cent steep fall in oil prices will break Iran’s back, not just the level of support for Assad.”
