Alwaght- Three months after visit to Syria of the Iranian President Sayyed Ibrahim Raeisi that saw the two countries signing trade and economic agreements Damascus has sent a high-ranking economic delegation to Tehran including ministers and business chiefs led by Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad to make arrangements for start of economic projects.
Foreign Minister of Iran Hussein Amir-Abdollahian in a press conference with his Syrian counterpart said: “We saw progress in implementing the trade, economic, and technological agreements. In the trip of the high-ranking Syrian delegation to Tehran, in addition to my colleague Mr. Mekdad, two other members of the Syrian cabinet are present. While the talks with the foreign minister are held, we have the meeting of the joint economic commission of the two countries, chaired by [Minister of Roads and Urban Development] Mr. Bazarpash.”
He continued that one of the common priorities is follow-up of the agreements signed during President Raeisi’s visit.
“The agreement for commercial transactions with the national currencies, which is being implemented, the start of the Iranian pilgrims’ travels to Syria, the strengthening of cooperation between the private sectors and the businessmen of the two countries, increase of number of flights between the two countries, and removal of trade and transit tariffs are among the areas seeing progress in relations with Damascus,” Amir-Abdollahian added.
For more precise follow-up of the interests deriving from the trade cooperation, a joint economic scientific, technological, banking and legal committee is actively working.
“Despite being involved in a long-term war, Syria has a special advantage in terms of facilities. We agreed on various projects, and agreements on ports, telecommunications, etc. are on the agenda of the two countries. Given the existing capacities, boost of private sector exchanges are on the right track,” Amir-Abdollahian held.
He went on that cooperation on transit route from Iran to Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and to other countries is underway.
“We have seen some obstructions over the past few days, but they were removed. Since the long-term cooperation plan was signed with Syria during President Raeisi’s visit, various committees were established to implement these agreements and to focus on trade and technological cooperation, and the work is going on fast.”
Shafiq Dayoub, the Syrian ambassador to Iran, commented on the goals of the visit, saying that business meetings will continue to the weekend and during them, all measures taken to make sure that the deals will be implemented will be reviewed. He maintained that during the trip, agreements were reached on launching strategic projects in gas, oil, and transportation sectors.
It is noteworthy that ministers of economy and communication of Syria along with a number of transportation officials are present in Tehran, too, to accelerate the deals implementation with the help of their Iranian counterparts.
Iran's current place in the economic aspect of Syria crisis settlement
The administration of President Sayyed Ibrahim Raeisi is seeking acceleration of the economic cooperation with Syria as part of the policy prioritizing economic ties with neighbors and regional states. This was glaringly apparent in his Damascus trip’s agenda .
In the meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and President Raeisi, an MoU for comprehensive and long-term strategic cooperation in railways, aviation, free zones to upgrade trade volume to an acceptable level fitting relations of two strategic allies was inked.
Leaving behind the crisis and civil war period, Syria has now embraced an age of reconstruction and has high economic needs and practically presents a lucrative market. With Syria in need to start housing, airport, power plant, and water distribution network, roads, and dam projects, Iran is expected to act faster than other actors as a close ally of the Arab country. Given its high construction material exports capacities, Iran can lead the countries present in Syria reconstruction. Syrian officials have already welcomed Iranian companies in their country. Al-Assad said several times that during the reconstruction period, priority would be given to friends and allies who stood with the Syrian nation during the war, and that Iran and Russia have more privileges.
In this trip, new discussions were held to improve and facilitate trade. Iran's Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazarpash, who hosted the Syrian minister of economy and trade on Monday, commented on the bilateral cooperation, saying: "The trade tariff for all items agreed between Iran and Syria has reached zero, and businesspeople can export and import goods without paying customs tariffs.”
He continued that in the insurance sector “positive” steps have been taken and a joint insurance company was founded and is ready to provide services.
For his part, Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Mohammad Thamer al-Khalil pointed to the cases discussed in the meetings, saying that many steps in banking tourism transportation, and free trade have been concluded and “we are optimistic about stronger relations.”
Customs tariffs has always presented a roadblock ahead of foreign investments, but with the tariffs reduced to zero between Tehran and Damascus, Iranian companies will be more persuaded to enter the Syrian market and bring about prosperity to both countries.
Syrian energy sector was another area of Bazarpash’s discussion with the Syrian officials. Bazarpash, who chairs Iran-Syria Joint Economic Commission, described positive Tehran-Damascus energy cooperation. He said that the two sides will discuss developing Syrian oilfields by the Iranian companies.
Syria's energy sector has suffered heavily during the crisis, and most of the country's oil is currently being stolen by the US and American-backed militias, and many infrastructures have also been destroyed by terrorist groups and need to be rebuilt to help the government meet its energy needs. In the field of technology and production of equipment for the construction of oil and gad refineries, Iran is one of the leading countries in the region, and these technologies will play an important role in improving Syria's energy production. By participating in Syria energy exhibition in July, Iranian companies announced their readiness to enter the country's oil and gas sector.
Beefing up railway infrastructure
During Iranian president's trip, one of the ways helping two countries accelerate their economic partnership growth was operationalization of Iran-Mediterranean rail link, an aspiration raised again by Bazarpash with the Syrian officials in their discussion of expansion of Syrian railway corridors.
“We decided to operationalize Iran-Iraq-Syria transit route for trade and set a discipline to this area,” Bazarpash said.
With the construction of a railway linking Iran to the Mediterranean, Iran's trade with allies will see a boom as imports and exports will be more facilitated with lower costs compared to air and sea transportation.
Official statistics indicate that Iran's non-oil exports to Syria reached 147,000 tons worth $244 million in 2022, increasing by 10.6 percent in terms of weight and 11.4 percent in terms of value compared to the year before. Currently, the level of economic relations does not match their economic capacities and strategic political relations. However, with the agreements recently signed, their bilateral trade is expected to reach $20 billion in the near future. The exchange of visits indicates that they are determined for a strategic economic partnership and they have taken long steps to implement their agreements.
Expansion of communication cooperation is another plan the two countries also focus on. In the meeting of the two countries’ ministers of communication, the grounds for cooperation in communication and IT and marketing and paving the way for the presence of Iranian technology companies in Syria were discussed.
They also reviewed their past agreement on the presence of Iranian private companies active in provision of equipment and services in communication and IT. They discussed broadening cooperation in platforms, e-government, and space industry. Acquaintance with Iranian capabilities in space industry and the private companies active in this area of science was also discussed by the two sides in a meeting hosted by Hassan Salariyeh, the deputy minister and the head Iran's Space Organization.
Due to its extensive experience in communication technologies, Iran can provide many services to Syria, and since the country's infrastructure has suffered serious damage, the way for the entry of Iranian knowledge enterprises is paved.
Countering the US and ISIS movements
In addition to the economic aspects of Mekdad’s visit to Tehran, talks about Syrian security developments have always been part of the two countries close cooperation. The Syrian FM is visiting Syria while the US and ISIS terrorist group have recently stepped up their movements to destabilize Syria. Carrying out two terrorist operations around Damascus last week and attacking government's oil tankers in recent days have once again sounded the alarm of foreign conspiracies targeting the stability and security of Syria and the region.
Commenting on the security dialogue with the Iranian officials about the continuation of the American occupation, Mekdad said: “There were talks about the Astana process and the American occupation in eastern Syria. I want to tell the American Congress that the crimes they are committing in Syria are war crimes and will surely end, and the resistant Syrian people will not allow this occupation to continue and will force them out.”
Mekdad described the American presence in northeastern Syria as “illegitimate”, because Syria did not called for their presence.
“Syria wants the US and international coalition forces, which are solely to serve the Israeli and American goals, out of the country,” he added.
The alarm bells about suspicious American actions in Syria in recent weeks were also set off by the Russians. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that nobody wants direct clash between NATO and Russian forces in Syria, but Moscow is “ready for any scenario.”
Iran and Russia that have borne heavy costs for restoration of security to Syria will not allow the US and the terrorist groups under its command to foment a crisis again and realize their evil plans, and Tehran's strong presence in the economic sector along with security cooperation with Damascus will neutralize Washington's plots.
