Brussels Conference

Syria chaired the 108th meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries on May 18 and plans to host the Arab Energy Conference in 2027.

Some EUR 6.4 billion was pledged towards funding the international humanitarian aid effort in Syria during the 2022 Brussels Conference held on May 10. The amount is higher than last year and from what was originally expected. Of this amount, EUR 4.1 billion is allocated for this year and EUR 2.3 billion for 2023.

An Emirati-Chinese company will sponsor a renewable energy conference in Damascus next week, which may serve to highlight the United Arab Emirate’s interest in the Syrian market.

Pledges for the upcoming Brussels conference on the humanitarian crisis in Syria are expected to decrease in line with the downward trend of pledges since 2021 due to funding shortfalls, donor fatigue, and the potential impacts of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Khaled Zubaidi, also known as Khaled Mohammad Bassam Zubaidi, is a prominent Syrian businessman who has grown increasingly influential in the real estate, tourism, and luxury sectors over the past few years.

Last week, security forces of the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria seized nearly 2.5 million captagon pills in their largest drug bust to date. The bust came a few days after the security forces of the Syrian Salvation Government seized four million captagon pills in Idlib. Both shipments were smuggled from areas controlled by the Turkish-backed Syrian Interim Government.