Islamic Republic’s Financial Support for Syria Amid Iran’s Economic Difficulties
The World Bank announced last month in a report that Syria’s economy is facing difficult conditions. In this report, the World Bank expressed concern about the decline in the value of Syria’s national currency and the shortage of food and fuel regarding the situation of people in this country.
Less than three weeks after the World Bank report was released, Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria, suddenly traveled to Tehran. During this brief visit, he met with the leader of the Islamic Republic and then held talks with Ibrahim Raisi.
The unannounced trip of Syria’s president to Tehran had significant repercussions among media activists. Some users on social media wrote: “Bashar al-Assad came to receive Syria’s oil share.”
The Islamic Republic’s assistance to what it calls the “Axis of Resistance” has a long history.
The leader of the Islamic Republic said on February 4, 2012, in Friday prayer sermons in Tehran: “We have intervened in matters of opposition to Israel. After this, whenever any nation, any people, any group fights and confronts Israel, we stand behind them, help them, and have no hesitation in saying this. This is the truth and reality.”
Following Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements, other officials of the Islamic Republic and officials of organizations supported by Iran in Arab countries also explicitly reported the sending and receipt of cash and non-cash assistance from the Islamic Republic.
Hashmatollah Fallahpisheh, a member of the former parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, announced in late 2019 that over the past decade, the Islamic Republic has spent approximately “30 billion dollars” in Syria.
On October 8, 2018, Iran’s Special Action Group at the U.S. State Department released a report stating that the Islamic Republic spends billions of dollars to support Bashar al-Assad and its supported groups in Yemen and Iraq. Mike Pompeo, the then U.S. Secretary of State, announced the release of this group’s report on Twitter. He wrote: “While the Iranian people struggle to survive, Iran’s corrupt government has wasted 16 billion dollars since 2012 to help Assad and support its other partners in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.”
Meanwhile, Hossein Alai, a former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in response to criticism about why the Islamic Republic helps the Bashar al-Assad government, told the Jomaran website: “Bashar al-Assad had no one in the world except Iran. The reason for Iran’s relationship with Bashar al-Assad was the issue of Israel. Iran has always been concerned and remains concerned that Israel will dominate Syria and Lebanon. According to Alai, Iran is concerned that Israel will expand, therefore it is trying to strengthen the Axis of Resistance.”
This is while, according to official reports, despite the Islamic Republic’s enormous expenses in Syria, Iran controls only 3 percent of this country’s market and 30 percent of Syria’s economy is in the hands of Turkey.
