عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

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)
TT
TT

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.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
TT
TT

Fire Tornadoes are a Risk Under California's Extreme Wildfire Conditions

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP
The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” - The AP

As if they aren’t already facing enough, firefighters in California also could encounter fire tornadoes — a rare but dangerous phenomenon in which wildfires create their own weather.

The National Weather Service warned Tuesday that the combination of high winds and severely dry conditions have created a “particularly dangerous situation” in which any new fire could explode in size. The advisory, which runs into Wednesday, didn’t mention tornadoes, but meteorologist Todd Hall said they're possible given the extreme conditions.

 

A look at fire tornadoes according to The AP.

What is a fire tornado? Fire whirl, fire devil, fire tornado or even firenado — scientists, firefighters and regular folks use multiple terms to describe similar phenomena, and they don’t always agree on what’s what. Some say fire whirls are formed only by heat, while fire tornadoes involve clouds generated by the fire itself.

The National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s glossary of wildland fire terms doesn’t include an entry for fire tornado, but it defines a fire whirl as a “spinning vortex column of ascending hot air and gases rising from a fire and carrying aloft smoke, debris and flame,” and says large whirls “have the intensity of a small tornado.”

Wildfires with turbulent plumes can produce clouds that in turn can produce lightning or a vortex of ash, smoke and flames, said Leila Carvalho, professor of meteorology and climatology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

“There is a rotation caused by very strong wind shear and a very hot, localized low-pressure system,” she said.

What is a fire tornado capable of? Fire tornadoes can make fires stronger by sucking up air, Carvalho said. “It creates a tornado track, and wherever this goes, the destruction is like any other tornado.”

In 2018, a fire tornado the size of three football fields killed a firefighter as it exploded in what already was a vast and devastating wildfire near near Redding, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of San Francisco in northern California. Scientists later described an ice-capped cloud that reached 7 miles (11 km) into the air and caused winds up to 143 mph (230 kph).

Research also suggests fire tornadoes can carry airborne embers, also called firebrands, over long distances, said James Urban, an assistant professor in the Department of Fire Protection Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. They also can change the fire’s behavior, he said.

“That’s also something that is dangerous and scary for first responders, or really anyone,” he said. “It can change and maybe go in a different direction.”

The interaction between wind, the fire plume and topography determines whether a tornado will develop, he said. For example, sometimes a certain topography will restrict airflow in such a way that a spiral pattern develops.

Can you make one in a lab? Together with San José State University, Worcester Polytech is part of a Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center. In the lab in Worcester, researchers have created small fire tornadoes by putting up walls around a fire or arranging a bunch of little fires that together restrict airflow. But that’s on a much smaller scale than what’s happening with the wildfires.

“We’ve got the biggest fire lab in the US for a university, but we cannot get something the size of what’s been reported at these fires,” he said. “You can’t really bottle that and put it in a lab.”