Syria's finance minister says foreign investors welcome after US sanctions move
DAMASCUS, May 14 (Reuters) - Syrian Finance Minister Yisr Barnieh made a call to global investors on Wednesday to come do business with Syria after U.S. President Donald Trump's surprise announcement that he would lift all of Washington's sanctions on the country.
"Syria today is a land of opportunities, with immense potential across every sector—from agriculture to oil, tourism, infrastructure, and transportation,' Barnieh said in an interview with Reuters at the Finance Ministry in Damascus.
"We envision a central role for the private sector in the new Syrian economy. The finance ministry's role is not to spend indiscriminately or act as a regulatory enforcer over businesses, but rather to enable and support growth."
A wall outside his office still bore the discoloured outline of one of the many posters of former strongman Bashar al-Assad that used to hang in Syria's public buildings before his ousting by Islamist rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham last year.
Changes in Syria have been swift since Assad fled to Russia in December of last year.
Former rebel commander Ahmed Sharaa was appointed president, formed a government and had quick success garnering Gulf Arab support and getting most European sanctions lifted.
The stunning turn of events was capped by a meeting between Sharaa and Trump in Riyadh on Wednesday after Trump's pledge to cease U.S. sanctions imposed on Syria under Assad-family rule, measures widely seen as the biggest external obstacles to the country's economic recovery.
Trump has not set out a timeline for removal.
"One of the most critical outcomes of lifting sanctions would be Syria's reintegration into the global financial system," Barnieh said.
"This would allow us to restore financial flows and attract investments, which are urgently needed across all sectors,' he said, adding that Syrian authorities have already seen strong interest from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, and several EU countries, among others.
He noted that the government is undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of public financial management, including reforms to the tax system, customs, and banking -- part of a broader effort to modernize an economy long burdened by an oversized public sector.
He also struck a cautioning tone, saying that the removal of sanctions would be just the first step in a years-long recovery for a country ruined by 14 years of war.
"The lifting of sanctions is not the final chapter," he said.
"We cannot afford to become complacent. We are entering a new phase that demands real results and visible progress on the ground."
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an hour ago
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Inside story of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's friendship after Elon Musk suggested the President appeared in FBI files. So what's the truth about claims of topless girls?
Like two fractious little boys trading playground insults they know are escalating out of control, the pair had been sparring all day – until one of them finally blurted out the slur he knew might end their friendship for ever. 'Time to drop the really big bomb,' wrote Elon Musk on his social media platform X on Thursday afternoon. ' Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' Musk didn't offer any clarifying evidence but soon added: 'Mark this post for the future. The truth will come out.' The extraordinary implosion of the friendship and alliance between the world's richest man and the world's most powerful man has proved mesmerising. But with this thin-skinned pair of blowhards there was always a sense that their friendship could end in recrimination sooner or later. And any possibility of a truce, Washington and Silicon Valley insiders predicted yesterday, has disappeared after Musk effectively pressed the nuclear button. Although he didn't precisely spell out the accusation, Musk was clearly implying that the US government was concealing the truth about Trump's dealings with the notorious late financier and paedophile. It is no secret that Trump associated with Epstein, even if he has been reluctant to admit it. They moved in the same moneyed social circles in Palm Beach, Florida, from the late 1980s until 2004, when they fell out spectacularly over a property deal. Along with the likes of Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton, Trump is one among many powerful people known to have associated with Epstein and who have been mentioned in court documents related to the financier's decades of sexual abuse. Before he was re-elected President last November, Trump said he would have 'no problem' releasing the so-called Epstein Files, the remaining documents from the major FBI investigation into the multi-millionaire, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 ahead of his trial on sex-trafficking charges. While critics have challenged Trump's initial insistence that he barely knew Epstein – pointing out that they were most certainly friends (a fact Trump has since acknowledged) – there has been no evidence that the future President was complicit in Epstein's crimes. However, that hasn't prevented Trump's name being mentioned in some of the conspiracy theories swirling for months over why the US government has still not released the files. Predictably, within hours of Musk dropping his 'really big bomb', some of his 220 million followers on X were dutifully stirring the pot by circulating old evidence of the pre-scandal Trump-Epstein friendship. Musk retweeted several examples, adding a raised-eyebrow emoji. They included a 1992 TV news report on a party at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Palm Beach resort and home, in which Epstein and the future President can be seen talking animatedly with each other as they stand watching a crowd of dancing cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, two American football teams. They point to some of the women and Trump, gesturing to one, appears to say: 'Look at her back there, she's hot'. He then whispers in the financier's ear, leading Epstein to double over in laughter. Musk also retweeted a passage from a 2002 magazine article about Epstein in which Trump said: 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He's a lot of fun to be with. 'It is even said he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it – Jeffrey enjoys his social life.' Trump biographer Michael Wolff threw fresh fuel on the fire yesterday, when he claimed to have seen damning evidence from those years – evidence that Trump would never want made public. This supposedly included lewd images of Trump and the sex offender. 'I have seen these pictures. I know that these pictures exist and I can describe them,' Wolff told the Daily Beast. 'There are about a dozen of them. The one I specifically remember is the two of them with topless girls... sitting on Trump's lap. And then Trump standing there with a stain on the front of his pants [trousers] and three or four girls kind of bent over in laughter – they're topless, too – pointing at Trump's pants.' Wolff believes the alleged incriminating photos could have been in Epstein's safe when the FBI raided his New York home after his arrest in 2019. The Trump campaign dismissed Wolff's claims about the photos when he first made them last November just before the presidential election, saying: 'Michael Wolff is a disgraced writer who routinely fabricates lies in order to sell fiction books because he clearly has no morals or ethics.' But according to Wolff, Trump and Epstein 'shared girlfriends, they shared airplanes, they shared business strategy, they shared tax advice… they were inseparable'. The well-connected writer added, the lives of the two men intersected 'in a very meaningful and profound way… these guys kind of made each other'. Trump bought the Mar-a-Lago mansion and estate for a bargain $10 million in 1985 – and then Epstein purchased his own Palm Beach mansion two miles away five years later. Although Epstein never became a member of Mar-a-Lago, which includes a private members' club, he would visit for parties. The two men also dined together at Epstein's Manhattan mansion and travelled together between New York and Palm Beach, the most famous of Florida's billionaires' playgrounds. Trump and Epstein were photographed together repeatedly at Mar-a-Lago during the 1990s and early 2000s – Trump always wearing a tie, Epstein never wearing one. They were pictured with model Ingrid Seynhaeve at a 1997 Victoria's Secret party in New York. And they were photographed partying with Prince Andrew and enjoying a 'double date' at a celebrity tennis tournament with their respective girlfriends, Melania Knauss and Ghislaine Maxwell. In fact, Epstein boasted to friends that he had introduced Melania – now First Lady – to the future president. (Neither of the Trumps has corroborated this). Trump was between marriages at the time and enjoying his image as a playboy billionaire. His parties in New York and Florida were packed with models, cheerleaders and beauty-pageant contestants thanks to his business links. He owned a modelling agency and an American football team, and ran the Miss Universe pageant. The Mar-a-Lago parties, said eye witnesses, were memorable for the fact that women far outnumbered men, often by ten to one. Trump admitted as much in a 2015 interview, saying he'd been single at the time and adding: 'The point was to have fun. It was wild.' In 1992, Trump arranged for a 'calendar girl' competition for VIP guests at Mar-a-Lago. The 28 attractive contestants found they were competing in front of just two men – Trump and Epstein. The organiser of this vulgar contest, George Houraney, told the New York Times in 2019 that he tried unsuccessfully to raise his concerns about Epstein's involvement. 'I said, "Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can't have him going after younger girls",' Houraney recalled. '[Trump] said, "Look I'm putting my name on this. I wouldn't put my name on it and have a scandal."' Mr Houraney claimed he 'pretty much had to ban Jeff from my events', but that Trump didn't seem to care. A former Trump adviser Roger Stone claimed in 2016 that Trump 'turned down many invitations to Epstein's hedonistic private island and his Palm Beach home', but insisted that he did visit the latter at least once and saw a bevy of underage girls there. 'The swimming pool was filled with beautiful young girls,' Trump later told a Mar-a-Lago member, according to Stone. '"How nice," I thought, "he let the neighbourhood kids use his pool".' Epstein would bring Maxwell to Trump events, too. Often referred to as Epstein's 'madam', the former socialite is now behind bars in the US following her 2022 sex-trafficking conviction. Steven Hoffenberg, a former Epstein business partner who was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, said Trump 'liked' Epstein but he was 'crazy about Maxwell, a very charming lady'. A court filing would later reveal how Epstein's famous little black book of phone numbers contained 14 numbers for Trump, Melania and key Trump insiders. 'They were good friends,' Epstein's brother Mark told the Washington Post of Trump and Epstein in 2019. 'I know [Trump] is trying to distance himself, but they were.' Mark said Trump even used to give Epstein's mother and aunt free perks at one of his casino hotels in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Another insider who knew Trump and Epstein back then told the New York Post: 'They were tight. They were each other's wingmen.' Alan Dershowitz, a US lawyer who represented Epstein, recalled: 'In those days, if you didn't know Trump and you didn't know Epstein, you were a nobody.' Eventually, they fell out in 2004 when they both tried to snap up the same Palm Beach property, a mansion called Maison de l'Amitie (ironically, the House of Friendship) which was being sold cheap in a bankruptcy sale. Both of them attempted to lobby the trustee handling the sale before the auction. 'It was something like, Donald saying, "You don't want to do a deal with him, he doesn't have the money," while Epstein was saying: "Donald is all talk. He doesn't have the money",' recalled the trustee, Joseph Luzinski. The break-up was well-timed for Trump, as just a few months later, Palm Beach police started investigating claims that Epstein was sexually abusing local schoolgirls. In 2008, Epstein served 13 months behind bars in Florida after admitting 'solicitation of a minor for prostitution', so by the time Trump was running for president in 2016, he would have been keen to downplay this connection. In 2016, his lawyer insisted Trump had 'no relationship' with Epstein, adding: 'They were not friends and they did not socialise together.' A day after Epstein was arrested in New York three years later, Trump – by now President – announced that he hadn't spoken to him for 15 years and that: 'I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you.' Trump staff stressed that he had once kicked Epstein out of his Palm Beach golf club. But others countered that, at one time, he most certainly had been a fan. Sam Nunberg, a former Trump campaign aide, claimed his boss 'would hang out with Epstein because he was rich'. He said he warned Trump about his Epstein links before his first White House run against Hillary Clinton. However, the aide alleged, Trump was confident that thanks to a close friend who owned the tabloid National Enquirer and who claimed to have compromising pictures of Bill Clinton on Epstein's Caribbean island, Epstein would cause more problems for the Clintons than he would for him. Trump has insisted he never visited Epstein's so-called 'orgy island' – the alleged location of some of his worst offences – in the US Virgin Islands, saying: 'I was never on Epstein's Plane, or at his 'stupid' island.' However, in February this year, US attorney general, Pam Bondi, released Epstein's flight logs which showed the president's name appearing seven times. The first flight on the financier's private jet was in October 1993 and on at least two journeys, Trump was joined not only by Epstein but by his then-wife Marla Maples, along with their daughter Tiffany and a nanny. Epstein owned several planes and it's possible Trump was specifically denying flying on the one dubbed the 'Lolita Express' for the sordid sex that reportedly occurred on board. When Musk notoriously called a British expat cave diver a 'paedo guy' after they clashed online over the 2018 cave rescue in Thailand, he ended up having to defend himself in a US libel trial (which he eventually won). Time will tell how Trump will take revenge on his former 'First Buddy' and his 'big bomb' claim that the President of the United States of America has something unsettling to hide over Jeffrey Epstein.
