Syria-Iran relations predicting further economic collapse – Saudi Economist

The Saudi economist and Former Advisor to the Saudi Ministry of Energy Dr. Mohammed al-Sabban said that the collapse of the Syrian pound and the deterioration of the Syrian economy is sustainable and accompanying the political scene.

Al-Sabban told North-Press that “the relationship with Iran on one hand and the sanctions regarding the war that hits the Syrian regime on the other hand foreshadow more future collapse, especially with the obvious indications of the international intention to continue the economic pressures on the regime’s ally”.

According to Dr. Sabban, the Syrian pound will face what is worse in the light of the new international reality and economic wars waged against Iran and its allies, which have become the alternative for the conventional warfare, “the Syrian economy has only one hope to recover in the event of a comprehensive political solution,” he said.

He pointed out that the breakdown of regional and international dealings with Syria’s resources that provided a big part of the Syrian income from foodstuffs, textiles and other industries that were filling the Arab markets had ended and disappeared from these markets, such as the Saudi market due to the war, and the Russian-Syrian-Iranian system that isolated the Syrian economy, along with losing control over the basic energy resources, as the oil fields in north-eastern Syria.

Roger Edde, a Lebanese politician agrees that the campaign of international pressure is intentional, as he said: “He was deluded who anticipated that this collapse could be avoided, as it will increase in the future”, he added, “the average citizen’s monthly pension is sometimes $28, and this is only the beginning, while what Damascus is doing is similar to what is happening now to Lebanon because of the suspicious relations”, Edde said. 

“Syria wouldn’t be built and the private sector investment will not be activated unless its Arab environment, which has always supported it and supported deteriorating Arab economies, however this will not happen without changing the Syrian regime and the constitution”.

The Lebanese politician believes that the solution is that the Syrians try to accept a federal decentralized system and adopt a central bank that coordinates between the governorates and benefits both the citizens and the state, then the citizen will see a radical change to the economy and to his living.

He added: “Bringing Syria back to the UN membership, Arab and Islamic Leagues and the return of its diplomacy to the international acceptance, and respect is the only way for the flow of investment and aid for the reconstruction of Syria”, Edde said, ” by giving a minimum of authority to the central authority, a maximum leverage to local authorities, the private sector, and a civilian state, all this is capable of reversing the Syrian economic equation by 100%”, he added.