Syria’s US$216 billion rebuild offers a Hormuz alternative

AI Summary

Syria, devastated by war and sanctions, requires an estimated $216 billion to rebuild its economy. Recent political shifts since December 2024 suggest potential progress towards recovery and reconstruction.

For years, Syria was a wound the world watched fester: a country carved up by war, sanctioned into isolation and reduced to a byword for state collapse. Its economy needs US$216 billion to rebuild, according to World Bank estimates. This month, for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, it began to look like it might actually get there. On July 8, the government of Ahmed al-Sharaa – a former jihadi commander turned president – established a supreme constitutional...