A Syrian government advertisement for the sale of 2,000 tons of “expired” Iranian tea in Damascus exposed the depth of profiteering from deals tied to the 2013 credit line agreement between Damascus and Tehran.
The agreement's original aim was to facilitate the import of materials, foodstuff and other items from Iran to Syria to allow the latter to confront the international economic sanctions that have been imposed on the regime since 2011.
Ahmed Negm, the director of the Syrian Trading Company, which launched the auctioning of Iranian tea, told RT on Friday that the 2,000 tons of tea had arrived in 2012 as part of the Iranian credit line and expired in 2015.
Negm refuted the idea that it had not been sold on the local market because it hadn’t been up to standard when it arrived in Syria. He instead stressed that this tea is very popular in Iran, but people in Syria didn’t like it because it does not color in the water it dissolved into.
Negm did not deny the accusations of corruption, affirming instead that dozens of investigations into the matter have been launched.
He explained that his company has two options: either keep the tea in their warehouses, where they take up a lot of space, or sell them for non-human consumption.
In 2018, local newspaper Al-Ayyam published an investigation of major corrupt deals made by senior government officials through the credit line.
The paper, which was subsequently removed from circulation, stated that “some weak-spirited Syrians exploited terms of the credit line agreement for personal gain, which turned the agreement into a facilitator of corruption in the import of many goods, such as tea, iron, sugar, rice, etc...”
The newspaper quoted a source in the Ministry of Industry as saying: “Many deals were made with the knowledge of the Economic Council, including a deal for a ton of tea, which many concerned parties objected to because it did not meet standards. However, a member of the Economic Council, a former finance minister, forced them through.”
Tehran and Damascus signed the first credit facility agreement in mid-January 2013, worth around one billion dollars, to facilitate imports of exclusively Iranian goods and commodities.
