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Syria’s al-Bashir Vows to Rebuild but Faces Cash Crunch

People walk along a street, after opposition fighters seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk along a street, after opposition fighters seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
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Syria’s al-Bashir Vows to Rebuild but Faces Cash Crunch

People walk along a street, after opposition fighters seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
People walk along a street, after opposition fighters seized the capital and ousted Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria December 11, 2024. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

Syria's new interim prime minister said he aimed to bring back millions of Syrian refugees, protect all citizens and provide basic services but acknowledged it would be difficult because the country lacked foreign currency.
"In the coffers there are only Syrian pounds worth little or nothing. One US dollar buys 35,000 of our coins," Mohammed al-Bashir told Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.
"We have no foreign currency and as for loans and bonds we are still collecting data. So yes, financially we are very bad."

Bashir ran the Salvation Government in a tiny pocket of northwestern Syria, before the 12-day lightning offensive swept into Damascus and toppled President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities have been bombed to ruins, swathes of countryside depopulated and the economy gutted by international sanctions. Millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.

 

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Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
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Israeli Strikes Kill 12 in Lebanon, including 5 Hezbollah Fighters

Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.
Women walk near destroyed buildings, with one holding the flag of Hezbollah, in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, after an Israeli military spokesperson said that Israel would keep troops in several posts in southern Lebanon past the deadline for them to withdraw, February 18, 2025 - Reuters reported.

Heavy Israeli airstrikes killed 12 people, including five Hezbollah fighters, in eastern Lebanon on Tuesday, a security source in Lebanon said, in what Israel said was a warning to the Iran-backed group against trying to re-establish itself.

The Israeli military said the airstrikes targeted training camps used by elite Hezbollah fighters and warehouses it used to store weapons in the Bekaa Valley region of eastern Lebanon.

The airstrikes were the deadliest on the area since a US-brokered ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel last November. Bachir Khodr, governor of the Bekaa region, said seven of the dead were Syrian nationals.

Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows in last year's conflict, killing its leader Hassan Nasrallah along with other commanders and destroying much of its arsenal.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday's strikes sent a "clear message" to Hezbollah, accusing it of planning to rebuild the capability to raid Israel through the elite Radwan force, Reuters reported.

Israel "will respond with maximum force to any attempt at rebuilding", he said. He added that strikes were also a message to the Lebanese government, saying it was responsible for upholding the ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate public response from Hezbollah or from the Lebanese government to the latest Israeli strikes.

The United States has submitted a proposal to the Lebanese government aimed at securing Hezbollah's disarmament within four months in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from positions they still hold in south Lebanon.

Under the terms of the ceasefire brokered by the US and France, Lebanon's armed forces were to confiscate "all unauthorized arms", beginning in the area south of the Litani River - the zone closest to Israel.