(Zaman Al Wasl)- More than ten Kuwaiti Shiite investors have established construction and real-estate companies in regime-held areas since January, seeking to bolster the ailing Syrian economy, sources told Zaman al-Wasl.
The Kuwaiti investors are in direct contact with Iranians officials operating in Syria where they get orders and instructions, according to sources .
The Syrian Trade Ministry has licensed ‘Diamond Lights’ that will work in hotel and tourist services, in Sayeda Zeinab city, south of the capital.
Owners of the company are Haroun Abdul Hussain Haji Muhammad Bahman, Mousa Abdul Hussain Haji Muhammad Bahman, and Afifa Abdul Hussain Haji Muhammad Bahman.
Last October, Kuwaiti businessman Abdul Nasser Owais Al-Hamdani Al-Ajmi obtained a license for his company “Eastern Energy”, specialized in tourism and hotel projects management, as well as oil and gas.
One of the prominent investors in Syria since 2006 is Kuwaiti Shiite businessman, Abdul Hamid Dashti. He has been residing in Syria since 2014 due to lawsuits by Kuwaiti government, which demands his extradition via the International Interpol, for his attack on Saudi Arabia, after its involvement in Bahrain, in addition to attacking the Gulf states that supported the Syrian revolution, when he was a member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly.
The only non-Shiite investor that the regime has authorized is the Al-Kharafi Group, the most prominent supporter of Hezbollah to this day. Many believe that Nasser Al-Kharafi and his brother, Marzouq Al-Kharafi, have converted to Shia, because of their overt support to Shiite doctrine.
The civil war has battered the country's finances and depleted its foreign reserves.
A flurry of international sanctions on Bashar al-Assad's regime and associated businessmen since the start of the war in 2011 has compounded the situation.
Aron Lund in a report published by the veteran Middle East Center in 2016 says: If the formal economy proceeds to break down in more fundamental ways than it has already, if the SYP loses even more of its purchasing power, and if state institutions cede ground to private charities, the black market, and militias, then the Assad regime will continue to evolve from an institutional state apparatus into a coalition of warlords. While tragic for Syria, such a development is especially dangerous for Assad himself, since his long term strategy is predicated on an ability to present himself as the last barrier against a permanent state collapse in Syria.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
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