Despite ‘Fatigue’, Donors Pledge Another $6.7 Billion for Syria, Neighbors

A general view shows the room in which European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)
A general view shows the room in which European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)
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Despite ‘Fatigue’, Donors Pledge Another $6.7 Billion for Syria, Neighbors

A general view shows the room in which European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)
A general view shows the room in which European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell speaks during a meeting, Supporting the future of Syria and the region, at the European Council building in Brussels, Tuesday, May 10, 2022. (AP)

An international donor conference raised $6.7 billion for Syria and its neighbors on Tuesday despite what the European Union's foreign policy chief said was "a certain fatigue" with the war there, now its 12th year.

The pledges, which were slightly higher than the United Nations' appeal for $6.1 billion, were made at the conference bringing together 55 countries in Brussels but excluding Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine. Moscow calls it a "special military operation."

"We are not forgetting the Syrian people and the situation in Syria," the EU's Josep Borrell said. "Certainly Syria and the suffering of its people might not be at the center of the news anymore. There's a certain fatigue after 11 years," he said.

What started as peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in Syria in 2011 spiraled into a multi-sided conflict sucking in Russia, Iran, Turkey and other countries, killing as many as half a million people.

Borrell said almost all Syrians now live in poverty. According to the United Nations, more than 6.9 million people have fled their homes inside the country, and over 6.5 million remain outside Syria, of whom 5.7 million are refugees in the region, still being hosted by neighbors.

Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, will also benefit from the humanitarian assistance, which is not designed to rebuild Syria.

Borrell also said Russia had not been invited to the conference, which has become an annual event to raise funds.

"Russia has not been invited because we are inviting those partners who have a genuine, real interest to contribute to peace in the world," he said.

"The US and the European Union, along with many other partners, will continue sending a clear message of rejection of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine in all international fora," Borrell told a news conference.

Moscow says the war in Ukraine is a battle against dangerous "Nazi"-inspired nationalists in Ukraine to defend Russia against the West.



Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
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Cash Crunch Leaves Syrians Queueing for Hours to Collect Salaries

Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP
Syrian civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs, and withdrawals are capped. LOUAI BESHARA / AFP

Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares's face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.
"I've been here for four hours and I haven't so much as touched my pension," said the 77-year-old, who did not wish to give his full name.

"The cash dispensers are under-stocked and the queues are long," he continued.

Since the overthrow of president Bashar al-Assad last December, Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception.

Decades of punishing sanctions imposed on the Assad dynasty -- which the new authorities are seeking to have lifted -- have left about 90 percent of Syrians under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet.

Prior to his ousting, Assad's key ally Russia held a monopoly on printing banknotes. The new authorities have only announced once that they have received a shipment of banknotes from Moscow since Assad's overthrow.
In a country with about 1.25 million public sector employees, civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs to make withdrawals, capped at about 200,000 Syrian pounds, the equivalent on the black market of $20 per day.

In some cases, they have to take a day off just to wait for the cash.

"There are sick people, elderly... we can't continue like this," said Abu Fares.

'Meagre sums'
"There is a clear lack of cash, and for that reason we deactivate the ATMs at the end of the workday," an employee at a private bank told AFP, preferring not to give her name.

A haphazard queue of about 300 people stretches outside the Commercial Bank of Syria. Some are sitting on the ground.

Afraa Jumaa, a civil servant, said she spends most of the money she withdraws on the travel fare to get to and from the bank.

"The conditions are difficult and we need to withdraw our salaries as quickly as possible," said the 43-year-old.
"It's not acceptable that we have to spend days to withdraw meagre sums."

The local currency has plunged in value since the civil war erupted in 2011, prior to which the dollar was valued at 50 pounds.

Economist Georges Khouzam explained that foreign exchange vendors -- whose work was outlawed under Assad -- "deliberately reduced cash flows in Syrian pounds to provoke rapid fluctuations in the market and turn a profit".

Muntaha Abbas, a 37-year-old civil servant, had to return three times to withdraw her entire salary of 500,000 pounds.

"There are a lot of ATMs in Damascus, but very few of them work," she said.

After a five-hour wait, she was finally able to withdraw 200,000 pounds.

"Queues and more queues... our lives have become a series of queues," she lamented.