An employee of a currency exchange office cashing an invoice in Damascus, on April 16, 2025. (Credit: Louai Beshara/AFP)
The stakes are high. For the first time since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, a Syrian official has traveled to Washington in a bid to ease the financial stranglehold on the shattered Syrian economy. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Syria has lost approximately $800 billion from its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 14 years of warSyrian Finance Minister Mohammed Barnieh is attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which began on Monday and will run until Saturday. The Syrian delegation also includes central bank governor Abdelkader Husrieh, while Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani is expected in New York at the end of the week, where he will attend the U.N. Security Council’s sessions as well as a broader meeting on the Middle East scheduled for April 29.The...
The stakes are high. For the first time since the ouster of Bashar al-Assad on Dec. 8, a Syrian official has traveled to Washington in a bid to ease the financial stranglehold on the shattered Syrian economy. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Syria has lost approximately $800 billion from its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over 14 years of warSyrian Finance Minister Mohammed Barnieh is attending the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which began on Monday and will run until Saturday. The Syrian delegation also includes central bank governor Abdelkader Husrieh, while Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani is expected in New York at the end of the week, where he will attend the U.N. Security Council’s sessions as well as a broader meeting on the Middle East scheduled for April...
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