Latest news with #Homs
Al Bawaba
37 minutes ago
- Al Bawaba
Syria thwarts missile smuggling to Lebanon
Published June 6th, 2025 - 07:12 GMT ALBAWABA - The Syrian Ministry of Interior said on Thursday that the Internal Security Directorate in the city of Qusayr in the Homs countryside had foiled an attempt to smuggle a shipment of weapons and ammunition that was intended to head to Lebanon. Also Read US announces catching IS leader in Iraq, Syria operations The ministry announced in a statement, "After careful monitoring and follow-up, and by choosing the appropriate time and place, an Internal Security patrol in Qusayr was able to seize a weapons shipment containing Kornet anti-tank guided missiles and 30mm ammunition, which were hidden inside a vehicle loaded with vegetables as a camouflage." It further noted, "Security forces arrested the driver, confiscated the weapons and ammunition, and referred the detainee to the competent judiciary to take the necessary legal action against him." In another story, two traffic police officers were killed Thursday in a shooting attack near Masaken Jaleen in the western countryside of Daraa, southern Syria. Assassinations and assassination attempts are escalating in the province, with ISIS-affiliated groups and remnants of the Syrian regime accused of being behind them. © 2000 - 2025 Al Bawaba (
The National
29-05-2025
- Business
- The National
Syria signs $7bn Qatari-led deal to double power supply
Syria on Thursday signed a $7 billion deal with a Qatar -led business group aimed at doubling the country's power supply in the latest move to boost its postwar economy. The Syrian government signed an agreement with a consortium of companies led by Qatar 's UCC Holding to add 5,000 megawatts to the national grid. The country is being battered by a severe power crisis. 'Today, we are witnessing a historic moment that marks a turning point in Syria's energy and electricity sector, as we work to rebuild the crumbling infrastructure of this vital sector,' Syria's energy minister Mohammad Al Bashir said in a speech during a signing ceremony at the Syrian presidential palace in Damascus. 'This memorandum strengthens regional co-operation and integration in the energy sector and helps us promote clean and renewable energy projects,' he added. The Syrian state is able to supply only two to three hours of electricity per day in most areas – a crisis that interim President Ahmad Al Shara has pledged to address. The lifting of sweeping sanctions on Syria has rekindled interest among global investors, with several major companies already establishing a foothold in the war-ravaged economy. The agreement includes the development of four combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plants, in Deir Ezzor, Mhardeh, Zayzoun in Hama province, and Treifawi in Homs province, with a total capacity of about 4,000 megawatts. It also covers a 1,000-megawatt solar power plant in Wadyan al-Rabee in southern Syria. The deal has been spearheaded by the Qatari energy and construction company UCC Holding and involves the US company Power international USA, and the Turkish companies Cengiz Enerji and Kalyon Enerji. UCC chief executive Ramez Al Khayyat praised the agreement, which he said 'marks a new phase of joint work to rebuild Syria by achieving self-sufficiency and ensuring sustainable development'. 'We will use the latest equipment in the energy sector, and the project will create over 50,000 direct jobs and 250,000 indirect jobs, contributing to the support of Syria's labour market,' he added. Fourteen years of war have decimated Syria's electricity network, reducing its capacity from 9.5 gigawatts in 2011 to 1.6 gigawatts today. The United Nations estimates that billions of dollars will be needed to rebuild it. US President Donald Trump announced the lifting of sanctions during his recent Gulf tour, a day before the historic Trump-Al Shara meeting in Riyadh. The US President said he wanted to give the new regime a "chance at greatness". The EU on Wednesday formalised its own decision to begin lifting economic sanctions, while leaving some in place related to the former regime of Bashar Al Assad.
Al Arabiya
23-05-2025
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Syria and Chinese company sign memorandum on investment
Syria said Thursday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company to invest in free zones for 20 years. The General Authority for Land and Maritime Ports said on X that it had signed a 'strategic agreement' with the Chinese company Fidi. The deal gives Fidi full operation rights over the Hessia free zone in the central province of Homs where an industrial zone would be developed on 850,000 square metres (210 acres) of land. It also grants Fidi rights to invest in 300,000 square metres of the Adra free zone on Damascus' outskirts, where the focus would be on commercial and service products for the local and regional markets. Syria has numerous free zones offering foreign investors benefits including full tax exemptions, the freedom to hire local or foreign labor and unrestricted transfer of foreign capital. The country's new rulers hope the imminent lifting of US and European sanctions will kickstart an economic recovery, after 14 years of devastating war. China was a major backer of former president Bashar al-Assad alongside Russia and Iran before his overthrow in December. Along with Russia, it repeatedly used its UN Security Council veto to support the Assad government and block Syria-related resolutions during the conflict.
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
I'm no Trump fan, but he's done the right thing in Syria. Britain should follow his lead
Amongst all the noise and activity in the Middle East this week with President Trump's arrival, there's one thing in particular that stands out. For me, as somebody who has been in and out of Syria for the last 12 years, Trump's meeting with Ahmed Al Shaara, the new Syrian president, was of huge importance. There are many criticisms to be made of the new US president, and I've made plenty of them, but in this instance he was spot on. By lifting sanctions and telling the Syrians and Israelis they must sort out a way to co-exist, Trump did exactly the right things. And this could be a time window in which an Israeli-Syrian accord might be forged: on my recent visit to Damascus, I was struck by the fact that most of the new Syrian government freely acknowledged that the Israelis' decapitation of the Iranian proxy Hezbollah was a major factor in the fall of the Assad regime. Hezbollah gunmen were one of the most important things keeping the old regime in power, and the Israelis' effective action against them helped to end decades of murderous oppression in Syria. The end of sanctions is vital, too. When I travelled around Syria a few months ago with members of the hugely influential British Syrian diaspora, visiting hospitals and local businesses, the universal ask from everyone was 'lift the sanctions'. In the main hospital in Homs, most of the MRI machines sat silent because sanctions left them without parts and maintenance schedules. The UK government did lift some sanctions early on, but the cuts to the foreign aid budgets in the UK and US means that little in material terms has been done to get this country back on its feet thus far. Much has been made of the new Syrian president's jihadist past, and those few of us who ventured into Idlib during the years when Assad and Al Nusra fought each other for control of the province ran the risk of being killed by either. But despite that, I believe the British government, and others who would rather not, should bury the hatchet with the new Syrian government as Trump has done. The single most important thing that Sir Keir Starmer can do to help Syria develop into a secular and democratic country – that's what the majority want, and Al Shaara wants, and I would argue we want – is to open the British Embassy in Damascus ASAP. I lobbied members of the House of Commons and the Foreign office on this when I returned from Syria and was told of problems with lack of finance, health and safety and risk assessments! These problems must be overcome. We might not have much in the way of 'hard power' these days, but we can still put on a good show when it comes to 'soft power', and we must do that when we have a chance like this. A few million spent on soft power today could avoid billions on hard power tomorrow. Aside from the British government, the importance of the British Syrian diaspora cannot be overstated. I worked with them for a few years in Idlib and travelled with them to Syria this last time. It is these people who helped keep the medical system going in Idlib for years, and they are now helping to roll it out across Syria. It was these people and British money which helped set up the White Helmets who are now delivering emergency services across the country. It is businessmen in this group who are advising on how to rebuild Syria. Again, the window is open and Syria, for now, is safe. It must be kept that way. Yes, there have been some flare-ups with the Alawite and Druze communities, but in the greater scheme of things, and compared to what has gone on before, this is fairly minor. Let's face it, if the likes of me – a former British Army officer with Middle East combat experience – are prepared to give the new president a chance then so should the British Government and get that embassy open. If they cannot find an ambassador and staff to run it because of health and safety concerns, I'll do it and put together a team no doubt full of those very able and willing British Syrians. This is too good an opportunity to miss by getting bogged down in risk assessments.
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Overjoyed to return - but Syrians face daunting rebuild after years of war
To the blast of a trumpet and the beating of drums, Fatima Hazzouri has come home. Thirteen years after civil war forced her to leave, she's back in her native city, Homs in Syria, blinking in the sunshine as she steps off a bus crammed with returning women and children, part of a long convoy of coaches and a central square, they're greeted ecstatically by musicians and dancers in embroidered silk shirts. Fatima is one of the seven million Syrians who were displaced within their country by the conflict between the government of former President Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces. It began in 2011 and finally ended with a rebel victory in December 2024. A further six million people fled abroad in those years. In total, more than half the population was forced to them back is perhaps the biggest challenge Syria now faces - because many no longer have a home to return to. But now, following President Donald Trump's decision to lift US sanctions on Syria, there's suddenly new hope that the shattered country can be rebuilt. "I'm overjoyed to be back," Fatima says. She shrieks in delight. The 124 families returning in the convoy have come from the north of Syria, where millions of displaced people live in tents and makeshift shelters. They've been on the road for eight exhausting hours - but it won't be an easy Syria's third largest city, saw some of the fiercest fighting of the war. Whole districts are still in ruins. In 2012, two rockets fired by government forces slammed into Fatima's house, largely destroying jostles to get free food and clothing provided by the private Dubai-based charity Waqf al-Farah, which organised the convoy. Then she heads for the flat her family is renting until they can repair their old home. Like the other men in the convoy, her son-in-law Abdulrazaq has gone ahead, riding on top of the family's possessions piled high on a Fatima arrives, mattresses, carpets, pots and pans are already being hauled through an upstairs window. In the north, Fatima got occasional work picking grapes or olives. Abdulrazaq was a teacher. But he doesn't know whether he'll get work in Homs to help pay the rent for the flat."I don't know what our future will be," he says. "We'll wait for the new government to decide.""The biggest problem we have is lack of jobs," says Khalifa al-Hakmi, who helped organise the convoy. "People have nothing to do when they come back."Providing work is just part of the huge task faced by Syria's new rulers, the former Islamist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), as they try to rebuild the million homes were destroyed. Essential services are lacking in many places. Homs, like most parts of Syria, gets only a few hours of electricity a far neither the government nor international agencies have put forward any comprehensive plan for resettling refugees. But the end of the crippling sanctions originally imposed on Syria by the US under the Assad regime means the country can again become part of the international banking system – and the economy can start to revive. For now, though, returnees still have to fend for themselves. Yasir al-Nagdali and his mother Siham returned to Homs three years ago. Their house was a shell. But now they've replaced the windows and the ceiling and Yasir - a trained carpenter - has made their flat homely even a canary in a cage. Keeping birds is Yasir's hobby. He can't forget how they escaped at the height of the battle for Homs. They crawled on their hands and knees as regime soldiers raked their street with machine-gun Siham also remembers happier times in the house – such as when she got married at the age of 14. In those days, she says, there were belly-dancers at weddings – and she wore 12 different dresses, singing a song each time she changed. For others in Homs, there's no happy return. Artist Samira Madwar sees no prospect of repairing the flat she grew up in. It was shelled, then burned, and looted by government now lives on the outskirts of the city. She bursts into tears when she sees the state of her beloved old home. Amid the rubble and broken plaster littering the floor, she finds old family photographs – and the remains of a book she wrote, that falls apart when she picks up."In my brain, there is a hole," she says. "My paintings, my books – everything - they took it, and left us without a memory about our life."Despite everything, Samira stayed in Syria throughout the war. But many of her friends left the country. One was Ammar Azzouz. He trained as an architect in Homs and now researches at the University of Oxford in the UK. He's overwhelmed with emotions after coming back to his city for the first time since 2011."I was aching for this day when I can walk the streets, touch the stones, meet the people, look at their faces, struggling to understand the scale of loss and grief," he like many other Syrians who've successfully started new lives abroad, he's thinking of dividing his time between his native and adopted countries, rather than returning permanently."Many people are describing it as the honeymoon period," Ammar says, talking about the first months after the fall of Assad. "There's a new energy and excitement and hope and optimism. At the same time, the reality is harsh. But I think building bridges between those who are outside and inside would be fascinating, because they bring in new skills, opportunities, networks and knowledge that we need so much." Rebuilding Syria will require all those things - and huge financial input. The United Nations estimates that 90 percent of Syrians now live below the poverty line – that's less than $2.15 USD a the family's belongings have been unloaded at their new, temporary home, Fatima goes back to visit her old house. Only two rooms are habitable, and two of her children are already living there. Just building a roof and tiling the floor would cost about $6-7,000 USD, she says. She can't imagine where such money would come from. But today, after 13 years away, she just wants to celebrate.
