Iran, Syria to Sign Agreements During Raisi's Visit to Damascus

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (Reuters)
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (Reuters)
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Iran, Syria to Sign Agreements During Raisi's Visit to Damascus

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (Reuters)
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi (Reuters)

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will visit Damascus Wednesday at the head of a sizeable ministerial delegation, the first by an Iranian president to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since war broke out in Syria in 2011.

A local newspaper revealed an Iranian plan to invest in the electricity sector in Syria, which will be discussed during the President's visit.

Al-Watan quoted informed sources saying that the Syrian government is arranging to sign new agreements with Iran in energy and electricity and that negotiations will occur during the Iranian President's visit.

The talks will also address a new Iranian line of credit to be invested in electricity, aiming to help Syria improve the sector, which has been suffering for over a decade.

According to the newspaper's sources, the Iranian delegation will discuss assisting Syria in repairing and establishing new electric power plants.

The Iranian President's agenda includes talks with his Syrian counterpart, meetings with Syrian politicians and clerics, and a tour of several areas in Damascus and its countryside.

Meanwhile, the joint Syrian-Iraqi committee began meeting in Damascus less than a week after the joint Syrian-Iranian economic committee sessions in Damascus.

The meetings discussed establishing the railway line through Iran, Iraq, and Syria and constructing the Basra-Shalamcheh line, announced Iranian minister for roads and construction Mehrdad Bazerbash.

Bazerbash chaired the Iranian delegation in the meetings that focused on the electricity and priorities in the Iranian credit line.

They also addressed the railway corridor, increasing the number of trips between the two countries, assisting the Syrian fleet, and inaugurating the al-Hamidiyah Port in Tartus.

The Iranian side renewed its request for 5,000 hectares of Syrian agricultural land for agricultural experiments and transferred Iranian expertise to the Syrian side.

Iraqi Trade Minister, Atheer al-Ghurairy, headed the Iraqi delegation, and the Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade, Mohammad Samer al-Khalil, chaired the team to the meetings of the Syrian-Iraqi joint committee.

According to local media in Damascus, a number of joint memorandums of understanding are expected to be signed.

Meanwhile, Syrian authorities are removing the checkpoints in Damascus near the security square, including a barrier at the entrance to the al-Maliki neighborhood close to the presidential palace.

Earlier, Damascus governorate removed illegal stalls and kiosks on sidewalks and roads to facilitate traffic.

The services department warned all stalls and kiosks' owners and then began removing the illegal businesses, issuing tickets for their owners.

Notably, Damascus preceded the visit of the Saudi Foreign Minister to Damascus last April by removing three roadblocks leading to the Abu Rummaneh neighborhood, where most Arab embassies are located. It is close to the presidential palace and the Four Seasons Hotel, the residence of international delegations.

The streets surrounding religious shrines, such as Sitt Ruqayyah in Old Damascus and the shrine of Sayyida Zeinab in southern Damascus, are witnessing a cleaning campaign amid a security alert.

The Iranian President is expected to visit the areas and the shrines.



Iranian Nuclear Program Degraded by up to Two Years, Pentagon Says

Sean Parnell. (AFP/Getty Images)
Sean Parnell. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Iranian Nuclear Program Degraded by up to Two Years, Pentagon Says

Sean Parnell. (AFP/Getty Images)
Sean Parnell. (AFP/Getty Images)

The Pentagon said on Wednesday that US strikes 10 days ago had degraded Iran's nuclear program by up to two years, suggesting the US military operation likely achieved its goals despite a far more cautious initial assessment that leaked to the public.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesman, offered the figure at a briefing to reporters, adding that the official estimate was "probably closer to two years." Parnell did not provide evidence to back up his assessment.

"We have degraded their program by one to two years, at least intel assessments inside the Department (of Defense) assess that," Parnell told a news briefing.

US military bombers carried out strikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22 using more than a dozen 30,000-pound (13,600-kg) bunker-buster bombs and more than two dozen Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.

The evolving US intelligence about the impact of the strikes is being closely watched, after President Donald Trump said almost immediately after they took place that Iran's program had been obliterated, language echoed by Parnell at Wednesday's briefing.

Such conclusions often take the US intelligence community weeks or more to determine.

"All of the intelligence that we've seen (has) led us to believe that Iran's -- those facilities especially, have been completely obliterated," Parnell said.

Over the weekend, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, said that Iran could be producing enriched uranium in a few months, raising doubts about how effective US strikes to destroy Tehran's nuclear program have been.

Several experts have also cautioned that Iran likely moved a stockpile of near weapons-grade highly enriched uranium out of the deeply buried Fordow site before the strikes and could be hiding it.

But US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week he was unaware of intelligence suggesting Iran had moved its highly enriched uranium to shield it from US strikes.

A preliminary assessment last week from the Defense Intelligence Agency suggested that the strikes may have only set back Iran's nuclear program by months. But Trump administration officials said that assessment was low confidence and had been overtaken by intelligence showing Iran's nuclear program was severely damaged.

According to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, the strikes on the Fordow nuclear site caused severe damage.

"No one exactly knows what has transpired in Fordow. That being said, what we know so far is that the facilities have been seriously and heavily damaged," Araqchi said in the interview broadcast by CBS News on Tuesday.