Take it from a Syrian, if you’re waiting for Iran to light up your country, think again.
Iran's Foreign Minister has expressed his country's willingness to help #Lebanon produce electricity within 18 months, by building two power plants at a combined capacity of 1000 MW.
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Similar promises were made to Syria in Sep 2017, where contracts were actually signed to provide Iranian equipment, technology, and know-how to rehabilitate the electricity sector at a combined capacity of 1,155 MW, including the construction of a 540 MW plant in Latakia.
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Four years on, virtually nothing has been implemented.
Thread
Quick comments on a few interesting studies and reports on #Syria that I've read recently.
Narcotics is perhaps the only booming industry in Syria. This excellent report from @CoarGlobal summarizes news articles of seized drug shipments originating from the country since 2011.
According to @coarglobal, in 2020, the seized Captagon shipments from Syria had a market value of $3.46 billion.
To appreciate how massive this is, remember that the regime's 2021 budget stood at $2.7 billion. Much of the activity in the narcotics industry is in regime areas