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Assad Signs Iranian Credit Line to Supply Syria with Energy

Syrians await the release of their relatives on May 3, 2022 in the centre of Damascus, after a general amnesty was issued by the Syrian president. (AFP)
Syrians await the release of their relatives on May 3, 2022 in the centre of Damascus, after a general amnesty was issued by the Syrian president. (AFP)
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Assad Signs Iranian Credit Line to Supply Syria with Energy

Syrians await the release of their relatives on May 3, 2022 in the centre of Damascus, after a general amnesty was issued by the Syrian president. (AFP)
Syrians await the release of their relatives on May 3, 2022 in the centre of Damascus, after a general amnesty was issued by the Syrian president. (AFP)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad signed an Iranian credit line during a surprise visit to Tehran on Sunday, Syrian local media reported.

The official Syrian News Agency (SANA) said that Assad had signed a “new phase” of the credit line, which included supplying Syria with energy and other basic materials to fill the shortage.

A credit line is a flexible loan from a bank or financial institution, with a defined amount of money that can be accessed as needed and then repaid immediately or over a specified period of time.

The first credit line opened by Iran to Syria was in 2013, with a ceiling amounting to $1 billion dollars with soft interests, followed by another worth $3 billion to finance the country’s needs of oil and its derivatives.

In 2015, a new credit line worth $1 billion was opened, the revenues of which were used by Damascus to finance the import of goods and merchandise and the implementation of projects.

Despite international sanctions imposed on the two countries, Iranian economic support for the regime in Syria included, in addition to credit lines, many economic cooperation agreements that covered vital areas, mainly electricity and railways.

Syria has been facing a severe fuel and energy crisis since mid-March, after the halting of Iranian oil deliveries and the decline of Russian support, with Moscow’s engagement in the Ukrainian war.

According to media sources, Damascus has asked several Arab countries to supply it with oil through the private sector, but the economic sanctions imposed on Syria prevented the urgent demand from being met.

Economic sources in Damascus said that there was no solution but to activate the Iranian-Syrian credit line and circumvent the Iranian conditions, which require cash payment for oil, due to the international sanctions on Iran and Syria.

Assad’s surprise visit to Iran culminated in the activation of the credit line and Iran’s announcement that it would maintain its support to the Syrian president. The latter met with Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who underlined Tehran’s continued support to Syria, according to the sources.

Syria’s fuel and energy crisis led to a sharp rise in the prices of all commodities, necessities and foodstuffs, which reached more than 800 percent – the highest increase since 2013, according to a statement issued on Monday by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).

“With years of conflict, a severe economic downturn, and food prices rising relentlessly since 2020, the Ukraine crisis is exacerbating what was already an alarming food security scenario in Syria. In March, food prices increased by 24 percent in just one month, following an 800 percent increase in the last two years. This has brought food prices to their highest level since 2013,” the WFP said.

It added: “Some 12 million people in Syria - more than half the population – currently face acute food insecurity. That is 51% more than in 2019 and an additional 1.9 million are at risk of sliding into hunger. With basic meals becoming a luxury for millions, nutrition is becoming a serious issue.”

WFP Executive Director David Beasley urged the international community to take immediate action in this regard.

“The international community must recognize that not taking action now will inevitably lead to a catastrophic future for Syrians. They deserve our immediate and unconditional support,” he stated.

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World

EU to Invite Taliban Officials to Brussels for Migrant Return Talks

Around 20 EU countries are exploring how to return migrants -- particularly those with court convictions -- to Afghanistan. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
Around 20 EU countries are exploring how to return migrants -- particularly those with court convictions -- to Afghanistan. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
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EU to Invite Taliban Officials to Brussels for Migrant Return Talks

Around 20 EU countries are exploring how to return migrants -- particularly those with court convictions -- to Afghanistan. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
Around 20 EU countries are exploring how to return migrants -- particularly those with court convictions -- to Afghanistan. NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP

The European Commission told AFP Monday it plans to invite Taliban officials to Brussels in the near future for talks on returning migrants to Afghanistan.

According to sources close to the matter, a letter is to be sent "imminently" to Kabul to arrange a date for a meeting in the Belgian capital.

The visit, coordinated with Sweden, would follow two trips by European officials to Afghanistan on the same issue.

Officials are now "working on a potential follow-up meeting at technical level in Brussels with the de-facto authorities in Afghanistan," a spokesperson for the EU executive said.

No specific date has yet been raised for the visit.

- Letter from 20 countries -

As part of a broader tightening of immigration policies, around 20 EU countries are exploring how to return migrants -- particularly those with criminal convictions -- to Afghanistan.

In an October letter, several urged the EU to find diplomatic and practical ways to move the issue forward.

"In this context a technical meeting took place in Kabul in January 2026," the commission spokesperson said, adding that the EU was now working jointly with Sweden to "pursue these discussions" in Brussels.

Such visits raise a host of practical and ethical questions, not least because they involve engaging with Taliban authorities, which are not formally recognized by the European Union.

To enter Belgium, which hosts the EU institutions, Taliban officials would need to be granted exemptions -- something Belgian authorities appear, in theory, prepared to do.

Beyond the practicalities, the European push on returns comes as Afghanistan confronts a severe humanitarian crisis.

Since 2023, more than five million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, often forcibly. According to international organizations, most of them live in extreme hardship, without stable housing or employment.

- Germany leads charge -

EU countries received about a million asylum applications filed by Afghans between 2013 and 2024, according to the bloc's data agency. About half as many were approved over the period.

In 2025, Afghans still -- by far -- accounted for the largest share of asylum applicants in the EU.

But as the public mood has soured on migration, Europe has looked to scale back its welcome -- and started discussing how to send Afghan migrants back home.

Some countries have pushed ahead, with Germany deporting more than 100 Afghans with criminal convictions since 2024, via charter flights facilitated by Qatar.

Attitudes in the country have been hardened by a string of deadly attacks by Afghans in recent years, including a car-ramming in Munich last year.

Austria has followed suit, receiving a delegation of Taliban representatives in Vienna in mid-September.

A number of other EU member states, including Belgium and Sweden, are looking to emulate their example, with enthusiastic backing from migration hawks.

The returns drive has drawn sharp criticism from NGOs and the political left.

"Deporting Afghans back to a country where almost half of the population cannot feed themselves is not a migration policy; it is a decision that could cost lives," says Lisa Owen, the International Rescue Committee's country director for Afghanistan.

Other migrant rights groups fear that a visit to Brussels could allow Taliban officials to identify individuals they want returned to Afghanistan, potentially putting their fundamental rights at risk.

Several diplomatic sources contacted by AFP counter that the visit is first and foremost intended to resolve practical issues -- such as how to issue passports to people whose embassies in Europe are not recognized by the Taliban authorities.

During their trips to Afghanistan, European officials similarly looked into the handling capacity of Kabul airport and other technical details, according to sources close to the talks.

World

UK Sanctions 12 Iran-Linked People, Entities

An Iranian man walks past an anti-US and anti-Israel mural painted on a wall, in the capital Tehran on May 10, 2026. (AFP)
An Iranian man walks past an anti-US and anti-Israel mural painted on a wall, in the capital Tehran on May 10, 2026. (AFP)
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UK Sanctions 12 Iran-Linked People, Entities

An Iranian man walks past an anti-US and anti-Israel mural painted on a wall, in the capital Tehran on May 10, 2026. (AFP)
An Iranian man walks past an anti-US and anti-Israel mural painted on a wall, in the capital Tehran on May 10, 2026. (AFP)

Britain on Monday slapped sanctions on a dozen Iran-linked individuals and entities accused of involvement in "hostile activities" by Tehran targeting the UK or other countries.

Updating its official sanctions list, the Foreign Office in London imposed the UK travel bans and asset freezes on nine people, two shadow banking exchange houses and the allegedly criminal Zindashti network.

The UK government had already sanctioned its alleged leader, Naji Ibrahim Sharifi-Zindashti, in 2024 alongside the United States, labelling him the head of international drug and trafficking cartel.

The European Union sanctioned his network last year, with London, Washington and Brussels all claiming it is connected to Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security and accusing it of conducting assassination and kidnapping operations against Tehran's critics.

The latest UK curbs follow a string of attacks over recent months against the Jewish community in Britain, and repeated warnings from officials that hostile states are intent on using proxies for such purposes.

Zindashti's nephew, Turkish national Ekrem Abdulkerym Oztunc, was among the nine people sanctioned Monday by Britain.

London also targeted five members of the Zarringhalam family -- Farhad, Fazlolah, Mansour, Nasser and Pouria -- said to have helped finance efforts to "destabilize" the UK.

Mansour, Nasser and Fazlolah Zarringhalam were sanctioned by the US last year for their involvement in Iran's "shadow banking" network.

The US Treasury said the trio had "collectively laundered billions of dollars" for Iran through a network of front companies in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong.

London also added Berelian Exchange and GCM Exchange, two US-sanctioned Iran-based exchange houses linked to them, to its sanctions list.

Iranians Nihat Abdul Kadir Asan and Reza Hamidiravari, and Azerbaijani national Namiq Salifov, were the other three individuals hit with the British travel bans and asset freezes.

World

Tens of Millions Risk Hunger as Hormuz Standoff Blocks Fertilizer, UN Official Says

An aerial view shows Jerry Fuerstenau planting a farm field on May 06, 2026 near West Bend, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)
An aerial view shows Jerry Fuerstenau planting a farm field on May 06, 2026 near West Bend, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)
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Tens of Millions Risk Hunger as Hormuz Standoff Blocks Fertilizer, UN Official Says

An aerial view shows Jerry Fuerstenau planting a farm field on May 06, 2026 near West Bend, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)
An aerial view shows Jerry Fuerstenau planting a farm field on May 06, 2026 near West Bend, Iowa. (Getty Images/AFP)

Tens of millions of people could face hunger and starvation if fertilizers are not soon allowed through the Strait of Hormuz, the head of a UN task force aimed at averting a looming humanitarian crisis told AFP on Monday.

Iran has had the strategic waterway -- through which a third of the world's fertilizers normally pass -- in a chokehold for months in retaliation for the war launched by the United States and Israel on February 28, disrupting a trade critical for farmers around the world in a race against the end of planting seasons.

"We have a few weeks ahead of us to prevent what will likely be a massive humanitarian crisis," Jorge Moreira da Silva, executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and leader of the task force, told AFP in an interview in Paris.

"We may witness a crisis that will force 45 million more people into hunger and starvation."

The UN secretary general created the task force in March to spearhead a mechanism to allow fertilizers and related raw materials such as ammonia, sulphur and urea through the strait.

For weeks, Moreira da Silva has been working to convince the belligerent parties to allow even a few ships through, and has met with "more than 100 countries" to rally UN member state support around the mechanism.

While the ultimate hope is for a "lasting peace" deal in the region and "freedom of navigation for all commodities" through the strait, "the problem is the planting season can't wait", Moreira da Silva said, with some ending in African nations within weeks.

Global focus has been on the economic impacts of the throttled oil and gas trade, but the United Nations has been sounding the alarm of the threat the blockade poses to the world's food security, with countries in Africa and Asia likely to be particularly hard hit.

- 'Political will' -

Moreira da Silva said the United Nations could have the mechanism up and running in seven days but even if the strait were to reopen now, it would take three to four months to return to normality.

"It's just a matter of time. If we don't stop the origin of the crisis soon, we will have to deal with the consequences through humanitarian aid."

While food prices have not exploded yet, Moreira da Silva said, there has been a "massive increase" in fertilizer costs, which experts say would likely lead to a drop in agriculture productivity and send food prices soaring.

Moreira da Silva said moving just an average of five vessels a day of fertilizers and related raw materials through the strait would head off the crisis for farmers.

What's missing, he said, is "the political will".

"We can't procrastinate on what is possible to do, and what is urgent to do -- which is let the fertilizers cross the strait and, through that, minimize the risk of massive food insecurity at the global level."