Syria: Local Currency Devaluation Exacerbates Sufferings In Damascus

Souvenir mugs featuring Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are seen among other items for sale in old Damascus, Syria, February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
Souvenir mugs featuring Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are seen among other items for sale in old Damascus, Syria, February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
TT

Syria: Local Currency Devaluation Exacerbates Sufferings In Damascus

Souvenir mugs featuring Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are seen among other items for sale in old Damascus, Syria, February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
Souvenir mugs featuring Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah are seen among other items for sale in old Damascus, Syria, February 8, 2016. REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki

The rise in the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Syrian pound has exacerbated the suffering of the people of Damascus. Recent tension erupted between Rami Makhlouf, who for decades had the country’s most prominent economic pillars, and the government who asked the businessman to pay about $180 million. As a result, the lira lost about 35 percent of its value, as the exchange rate fell against the dollar from 1200 to 1600 after it was 46 liras back in 2011.

The Syrian regime has ordered a series of measures against Makhlouf’s companies, including the Association, and his shares in the state-owned Syrian Telecom Company (Syriatel), the country’s biggest mobile phone company.

The government’s Telecommunications and Postal Regulatory Authority informed two of Makhlouf’s companies, “Syriatel” and “MTN” mobile phone to pay about 234 billion Syrian pounds to the state treasury as a penalty.

Official media quoted a Syrian economic researcher as saying that the amendment of the contracts with the two mobile companies has caused the loss of more than 338 billion pounds (482 million dollars) to the treasury.

Economists told Asharq Al-Awsat that the crisis between the government and Makhlouf had been silent for a year, but that the new conflict emerged in light of “the government’s urgent need for the dollar,” which was reflected in a terrible rise in food prices in the capital.

The World Food Program estimated that food prices rose by 107% in one year.

In parallel, the Ministry of Oil stopped, on Sunday, supplying vehicles with subsidized gasoline, in a new austerity measure that reflects the exacerbation of the economic and financial crisis.

The decision sparked criticism on social media and on the street, while government officials blamed the fuel crisis on economic sanctions imposed by several Arab and Western countries, which prevented the arrival of oil tankers.

The US sanctions against Tehran have aggravated the fuel crisis in Syria, which depends on a credit line that links it to Iran to secure its fuel.

Meanwhile, the government and the central bank have demonstrated a great inability to find solutions to the economic crisis and to control the exchange rate. Instead, they stood idle at the fastest deterioration of the value of the lira without taking any proper action.

“Our government does not have the needed dollars and is barely managing to bring in wheat, sugar and rice,” An economic expert told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Unless the government demonstrates great flexibility in the international conflict taking place over the Syrian file, the economic situation in the country is heading towards a further deterioration,” he added.



Harris Tries to Thread the Needle on Gaza After Meeting with Netanyahu 

US Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, in Washington, DC, US, July 25, 2024. (Reuters)
US Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, in Washington, DC, US, July 25, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

Harris Tries to Thread the Needle on Gaza After Meeting with Netanyahu 

US Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, in Washington, DC, US, July 25, 2024. (Reuters)
US Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds, in Washington, DC, US, July 25, 2024. (Reuters)

Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, is attempting to bridge divides within the party over the war in Gaza, emphasizing Israel's right to defend itself while also focusing on alleviating Palestinian suffering.

She delivered remarks after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday that reflected a delicate balancing act on one of the country's most divisive political issues. Some Democrats have been critical of President Joe Biden's steadfast support for Israel despite the increasing death toll among Palestinians, and Harris is trying to unite her party for the election battle with Republican candidate Donald Trump.

"We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies," she said. "We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent."

Harris did not deviate from the administration's approach to the conflict, including grueling negotiations aimed at ending the fighting, releasing hostages held by Hamas and eventually rebuilding Gaza. She also said nothing about military assistance for Israel, which some Democrats want to cut.

Instead, she tried to refocus the conversation around mitigating the calamity in Gaza, and she used language intended to nudge Americans toward an elusive middle ground.

"The war in Gaza is not a binary issue," she said. "But too often, the conversation is binary when the reality is anything but."

In addition, Harris made a more explicit appeal to voters who have been frustrated by the ceaseless bloodshed, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.

"To everyone who has been calling for a ceasefire, and to everyone who yearns for peace, I see you, and I hear you," she said.

Harris' meeting with Netanyahu was private, and she described it as "frank and constructive." She also emphasized her longtime support for Israel, which includes raising money to plant trees in the country when she was a young girl.

Jewish Americans traditionally lean Democratic, but Republicans have tried to make inroads. Trump claimed this week that Harris "is totally against the Jewish people" because she didn't attend Netanyahu's address to a joint meeting of Congress. The vice president was traveling in Indiana during the speech.

Harris is married to a Jewish man, Doug Emhoff, who has played an outspoken role in the administration's efforts to combat antisemitism.

Netanyahu did not speak publicly after his meeting with Harris. His trip was scheduled before Biden dropped his reelection bid, but the meeting with Harris was watched closely for clues to her views on Israel.

"She is in a tricky situation and walking a tightrope where she’s still the vice president and the president really is the one who leads on the foreign policy agenda," said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, a Democrat whose city is home to one of the largest Arab American communities in the nation. "But as the candidate, the presumptive nominee, she has to now create the space to differentiate in order for her to chart a new course."

Protesters gathered outside Union Station on the day of Netanyahu's speech, ripping down American flags and spray painting "Hamas is coming."

Harris sharply criticized those actions, saying there were "despicable acts by unpatriotic protesters and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric. "

"I support the right to peacefully protest, but let’s be clear: Antisemitism, hate and violence of any kind have no place in our nation," she said in a statement.

As vice president, Harris has tried to show little daylight between herself and Biden. But David Rothkopf, a foreign policy writer who has met with her, said there's been "a noticeable difference in tone, particularly in regards to concern for the plight of innocent Palestinians."

The difference was on display in Selma, Alabama, in March, when Harris commemorated the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights in 1965.

During her speech, Harris said that "given the immense scale of suffering in Gaza, there must be an immediate ceasefire."

The audience broke out in applause. A few sentences later, Harris emphasized that it was up to Hamas to accept the deal that had been offered. But her demand for a ceasefire still resonated in ways that Biden's comments had not.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in June found that about 6 in 10 Democrats disapproved of the way Biden is handling the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Roughly the same number said Israel's military response in Gaza had gone too far.

Israeli analysts said they doubted that Harris would present a dramatic shift in policies toward their country.

Chuck Freilich, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser and senior fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank, said Harris was from a generation of American politicians who felt they could both support Israel and publicly criticize its policies.

"The question is as president, what would she do?" Freilich said. "I think she would put considerably more pressure on Israel on the Palestinian issue overall."