Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime moved to cut spending on Thursday, hoping to blunt the economic fallout of Russia invasion of Ukraine, amid fears oil and wheat prices will soar in the economically battered nation, the state news reports the agency.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that after an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, officials decided to manage the reserves of main staple foods such as wheat, sugar, cooking oil and rice for the next two months, watch the distribution carefully of foodstuffs and ration them.
The economics of the scheme minister, Mohammed Samer Khalil, said that Crimea offered to export wheat to Syria. He said the Assad regime was considering the offer. SANA said that the government also decided to follow the exchange closely rate and to “ration public expenses in a way which covers only the priorities of this period.
Syria, struggling after more more than a decade of war, rests mainly on wheat imports from Russia and oil shipments from son another ally, Iran. As Russia pounded Ukraine on Thursday, Syrian authorities saw danger panels in rising Oil prices on on both sides of the Atlantic and wholesale prices jumped for fuel oil, wheat and other commodities.
Russia is a main funder of President Bashar Assad’s regime and its military intervention in 2015 helped tip the balance of power in his favor. The Assad regime described the attacks on Ukraine as “military operation of the Russian allies to preserve their national security and stability”.
Russia’s war effort pushed the Syrian Assad regime to manage its own resources. SANA, the state news the agency, said the issue was discussed during an extraordinary council of ministers on Thursday on the path forward given Russian invasion.
the decision came like oil prices on on both sides of the Atlantic jumped towards or above $100 a barrel at their highest levels since 2014, up more by 6%.
The Syrian conflict that began in March 2011 a left almost half a million people dead and moved half the country’s pre-war population of 23 millions people. The war has also lead to severe shortages in fuel and wheat. the dollar today is worth around 3,600 Syrian pounds per with 47 pounds to start of the dispute.
The country’s largest oil wells are under control of US-backed YPG terrorist group in the east of the country, depriving government access for them. The fertile agricultural areas of the country, where wheat is planted, are also out of government control.
Earlier on On Thursday, Russia invaded Ukraine, striking towns and bases with airstrikes or shelling, as civilians piled into trains and cars to flee. Ukraine government said Russian tanks and troops crossed the border in a “fullwar on a large scale” which could rewrite the geopolitical order and whose fallout already echoed around the world.
Assad’s Regime move came hours after the UN warned that 14.6 millions people are in need of aid in war-torn Syria, an increase of 1.2 million people compared with with last year. The Bureau’s report for the coordination of Humanitarian cases were released on Wednesday evening.
The UN and its partners reach 7 millions people every month, “but more support East requiredtweeted Mark Cutts, the UN’s deputy regional humanitarian coordinator. for the Syrian crisis.
