Syrian leadership to rub shoulders with global finance heads in Washington

Country in dire need of reconstruction cash will have high-level delegation at World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings

Syria's new leadership is seeking foreign funding to pay for mass reconstruction after years of civil war. AFP

Members of the Syrian government will attend major financial talks in Washington next week, officials said on Tuesday, in a bid to obtain international loans as huge obstacles remain to fulfil the country's vast reconstruction needs.

The six-day annual meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund will give Syrian officials, appointed by Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), their first major chance to rub shoulders with market titans and those who control the world of international lending. HTS, an armed organisation formerly linked to Al Qaeda, has been in control of most of Syria since the toppling of Bashar Al Assad on December 8.

A World Bank official told The National that Finance Minister Mohammed Bernieh and Central Bank Governor Abdul Qadir Al Hasriya have been registered as representatives of Syria at the meeting.

Bilateral discussions with World Bank officials will focus on the possibility of Syria obtaining $100 million to $200 million in developmental assistance, for which the country qualifies as a low-income nation. "It will be the first attendance for Syria for about a decade," the official said.

Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara was in Qatar for talks on Tuesday as part of a flurry of efforts to re-enter the global arena, which have included recent visits to Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani praised Qatar as a country "that has stood by Syrians from day one and has never abandoned them".

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani receives Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara in Doha on Tuesday. Reuters

A Syrian source in Washington said the government's attendance at the meetings is expected to kick-start a lending relationship with the World Bank, but there has been no indication that the US will support financing major reconstruction projects.

Reconstruction needs

The country needs tens of billions of dollars to fix its water and electricity system, as well as hospitals, schools and other basic recovery needs. In January, the US eased sanctions on Syria but kept significant restrictions imposed on the government and certain sectors.

This month, US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Washington was sympathetic to "the struggles of the Syrian people who have [for] suffered decades under ... the Assad regime".

But Washington has said co-operation is contingent on the government suppressing terrorism, sidelining "foreign terrorist fighters" and "verifiably" destroying Mr Al Assad’s chemical weapons, as well as ensuring freedom for the country's minorities.

Syria's economy was undermined by a transformation to a command system that began in the 1950s and banned most private enterprise. The bans deepened under the Baath party, which took power in a coup in 1963. For decades, Syrian authorities relied on funding from the former Soviet Union and grants from Gulf countries.

When Bashar Al Assad inherited power from his father Hafez in 2000, he allowed the setting up of privately owned banks and currency exchange shops. But the country remained largely outside of the international financial system, party because of western, particularly US sanctions. The situation worsened during the civil war.

World Bank data indicates Syria's economy is less than half of its pre-civil war size. EPA

The latest World Bank data puts Syria's gross national income at $15.88 billion in 2022, compared with $53 billion in 2010, the last year before the revolt against the Assad regime. The 2011 revolt had morphed into civil war by the end of that year and continued until Mr Al Assad was toppled on December 8, 2024, by HTS forces.

Bassam Barabandi, a well-connected former Syrian diplomat said Saudi Arabia intends to pay the $15 million in arrears that Syria owes the World Bank. The kingdom and the World Bank have declined to comment.

Saudi Arabia is the wealthiest Arab backer of the current government in Damascus, while Mr Al Shara has made economic revival and the lifting of US sanctions a centrepiece of Syria's foreign policy.