Iran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership, Iranian official says

Iran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership, Iranian official says
FILE PHOTO: An Iranian man reads a newspaper with a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Tehran, Iran December 8, 2024. (Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters)
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Updated 09 December 2024
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Iran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership, Iranian official says

Iran in direct contact with groups in new Syrian leadership, Iranian official says

DUBAI : Iran has opened a direct line of communication with rebels in Syria’s new leadership since its ally Bashar Assad was ousted, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday, in an attempt to “prevent a hostile trajectory” between the countries. The lightning advance of a militia alliance spearheaded by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, a former Al-Qaeda affiliate, marked one of the biggest turning points for the Middle East in generations. Assad’s fall as president removed a bastion from which Iran and Russia exercised influence across the Arab world. Hours after Assad’s fall, Iran said it expected relations with Damascus to continue based on the two countries’ “far-sighted and wise approach” and called for the establishment of an inclusive government representing all segments of Syrian society.
There is little doubt about Tehran’s concern about how the change of power in Damascus will affect Iran’s influence in Syria, the lynchpin of its regional clout.
But there is no panic, three Iranian officials told Reuters, as Tehran seeks diplomatic avenues to establish contact with people whom one of the officials called “those within Syria’s new ruling groups whose views are closer to Iran’s.”
“The main concern for Iran is whether Assad’s successor will push Syria away from Tehran’s orbit,” a second Iranian officials said. “That is a scenario Iran is keen to avoid.”
A hostile post-Assad Syria would deprive Lebanese armed group Hezbollah of its only land supply route and deny Iran its main access to the Mediterranean and the “front line” with Israel.
One of the senior officials said Iran’s clerical rulers, facing the loss of an important ally in Damascus and the return of Donald Trump to the white House in January, were open to engaging with Syria’s new leaders.
“This engagement is key to stabilize ties and avoiding further regional tensions,” the official said.

Contacts with Syrian Leadership

Tehran has established contacts with two groups inside the new leadership and the level of interaction will be assessed in the coming days after a meeting at Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, a top security body, he said.
Two of the Iranian officials said Tehran was wary of Trump using Assad’s removal as leverage to intensify economic and political pressure on Iran, “either to force concessions or to destabilize the Islamic Republic.”
After pulling the United States out of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six major powers in 2018, then-President Trump pursued a “maximum pressure” policy that led to extreme economic hardship and exacerbated public discontent in Iran. Trump is staffing his planned administration with hawks on Iran.
In 2020, Trump, as president, ordered a drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander and mastermind of overseas attacks on US interests and those of its allies.
“Iran is now only left with two options: fall back and draw a defensive line in Iraq or seek a deal with Trump,” said Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group.
The fall of Assad exposed Tehran’s dwindling strategic leverage in the region, exacerbated by Israel’s military offensives against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Iran’s clerical rulers spent billions of dollars propping up Assad during the civil war that erupted in Syria in 2011 and deployed its Revolutionary Guards to Syria to keep its ally in power and maintain Tehran’s “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and US influence in the Middle East.
Assad’s fall removes a critical link in Iran’s regional resistance chain that served as a crucial transit route for Tehran to supply arms and fund its proxies and particularly Hezbollah.


Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion
Updated 44 sec ago
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Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

Lebanese PM designate Salam says he is against exclusion

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam said on Tuesday that his hands are extended to everyone, saying he was opposed “to exclusion” a day after the Iran-backed Hezbollah group accused opponents of seeking to exclude it by nominating him.
Salam said he was against exclusion and on the contrary supported unity. “This is my sincere call, and my hands are extended to everyone,” he said.


Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital
Updated 14 January 2025
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Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital

Sudan rescuers say more than 120 killed by shelling around capital
  • Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan

Port Sudan: Sudanese volunteer rescuers said shelling of an area of Omdurman, the capital Khartoum’s twin city just across the Nile River, killed more than 120 people.
The “random shelling” on Monday in western Omdurman resulted in the deaths of 120 civilians, said the Ombada Emergency Response Room, part of a network of volunteer rescuers across the war-torn country.
The network described the toll as preliminary and did not specify who was behind the attack.
The rescuers said medical supplies were in critically short supply as health workers struggled to treat “a large number of wounded people suffering from varying degrees of injuries.”
Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has escalated in recent weeks after more than 20 months of war in Sudan.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the war which has left the country on the brink of famine, according to aid agencies.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of targeting civilians, including health workers, and indiscriminately shelling residential areas.
Most of Omdurman is under army control while the RSF holds the capital and part of the greater Khartoum area.
Residents on both sides of the Nile have reported shelling across the river, with bombs and shrapnel regularly striking homes and civilians.


Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment
Updated 14 January 2025
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Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

Erdogan ally urges jailed Kurdish militant leader to announce PKK’s disbandment

ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s key nationalist ally urged jailed PKK militant group leader Abdullah Ocalan to explicitly announce the group’s disbandment after his next expected meeting with the country’s pro-Kurdish political party.
The remarks by nationalist Devlet Bahceli came after a rare meeting between officials from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and Ocalan last week.
The PKK, designated a terrorist organization by Turkiye, has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.


'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations

'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations
Updated 14 January 2025
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'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations

'Final round' of Gaza talks to start Tuesday in Qatar: source briefed on negotiations

Dubai: A “final round” of Gaza truce talks is due to start Tuesday in Qatar, said a source briefed on the negotiations aimed at ending the Israel-Hamas war after more than 15 months.
“A final round of talks is expected to take place today in Doha,” the souce told AFP on condition of anonymity, adding that Tuesday’s meetings “are aimed at finalizing the remaining details of the deal” with the heads of Israel’s intelligence agencies, the Middle East envoys for the incoming and outgoing US administrations and Qatar’s prime minister present.
Mediators are to meet separately with Hamas officials, the source said.


Syria’s new central bank chief vows to boost bank independence post Assad

Syria’s new central bank chief vows to boost bank independence post Assad
Updated 14 January 2025
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Syria’s new central bank chief vows to boost bank independence post Assad

Syria’s new central bank chief vows to boost bank independence post Assad
  • Central bank is preparing draft law to boost independence, review of FX, gold reserves is under way
  • Governor says wants avoid printing money due to inflation impact

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new central bank governor, Maysaa Sabreen, said she wants to boost the institution’s independence over monetary policy decisions, in what would be a sea change from the heavy control exerted under the Assad regime.
Sabreen, previously the Central Bank of Syria’s number two, took over in a caretaker role from former governor Mohammed Issam Hazime late last year.
She is a rare example of a former top state employee promoted after Syria’s new Islamic rulers’ lightning offensive led to President Bashar Assad’s fall on Dec. 8.
“The bank is working on preparing draft amendments to the bank’s law to enhance its independence, including allowing it more freedom to make decisions regarding monetary policy,” she told Reuters in her first media interview since taking office.
The changes would need the approval of Syria’s new governing authority, though the process is at this stage unclear. Sabreen gave no indication of timing.
Economists view central bank independence as critical to achieve long-term macroeconomic and financial sector stability.
While the Central Bank of Syria has always been, on paper, an independent institution, under Assad’s regime the bank’s policy decisions were de facto determined by the government.
Syria’s central bank, Sabreen added, was also looking at ways to expand Islamic banking further to bring in Syrians who avoided using traditional banking services.
“This may include giving banks that provide traditional services the option to open Islamic banking branches,” Sabreen, who has served for 20 years at the bank, told Reuters from her office in bustling central Damascus.
Islamic banking complies with sharia, or Islamic law, and bans charging interest as well as investing in prohibited businesses such as trading in alcohol, pork, arms, pornography or gambling. Islamic banking is already well established in the predominantly Muslim nation.
Limited access to international and domestic financing meant the Assad government used the central bank to finance its deficit, stoking inflation.
Sabreen said she is keen for all that to change.
“The bank wants to avoid having to print Syrian pounds because this would have an impact on inflation rates,” she said.
Asked about the size of Syria’s current foreign exchange and gold reserves, Sabreen declined to provide details, saying a balance sheet review was still underway.
Four people familiar with the situation told Reuters in December that the central bank had nearly 26 tons of gold in its vaults, worth around $2.2 billion, some $200 million in foreign currency and a large quantity of Syrian pounds.
The Central Bank of Syria and several former governors are under US sanctions imposed after former Assad’s violent suppression of protests in 2011 that spiralled into a 13-year civil war.
Sabreen said the central bank has enough money in its coffers to pay salaries for civil servants even after a 400 percent raise promised by the new administration. She did not elaborate.
Reuters reported that Qatar would help finance the boost in public sector wages, a process made possible by a US sanctions waiver from Jan. 6 that allows transactions with Syrian governing institutions.
Inflation challenge
Analysts say stabilising the currency and tackling inflation will be Sabreen’s key tasks — as well as putting the financial sector back on a sound footing.
The Syrian currency’s value has tumbled from around 50 pounds per US dollar in late 2011 to just over 13,000 pounds per dollar on Monday, according to LSEG and central bank data.
The World Bank in a report in spring 2024 estimated that annual inflation jumped nearly 100 percent year-on-year last year.
The central bank is also looking to restructure state-owned banks and to introduce regulations for money exchange and transfer shops that have become a key source of hard currency, said Sabreen, who most recently oversaw the banking sector.
Assad’s government heavily restricted the use of foreign currency, with many Syrians scared of even uttering the word “dollar.”
The new administration of de facto leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa abolished such restrictions and now locals wave wads of banknotes on streets and hawk cash from the backs of cars, including one parked outside the central bank’s entrance.
To help stabilize the country and improve basic services, the US last week allowed sanctions exemptions for humanitarian aid, the energy sector and sending remittances to Syria, although it reiterated the central bank itself remained subject to sanctions.
Sabreen said allowing personal transfers from Syrians abroad was a positive step and hoped sanctions would be fully lifted so banks could link back up to the global financial system.