Opposition Dissolves Interim Government
Reuters reports that the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition has voted to dissolve its interim government. It will form a new one within a month.
“Attempts to form a viable government-in-exile for Syria’s opposition have been hamstrung by rivalries between its backers and among its members as well as by its inability to establish itself inside Syria,” the wire says. The SNC “is designated as the main body representing the opposition by the United States and other major powers, but it has little influence over rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.”
On Tuesday, the SNC said that it was doing away with the interim cabinet in order to “create new ground for work on the basis of moving the government into the interior as soon as possible, and employing Syrian revolutionary capabilities.” The decision is said to be rooted “in a dispute between interim Prime Minister Ahmad Tumeh and the coalition’s former president, Ahmad Jarba, over Jarba’s attempts to form a military government.”
Conflict Has Caused $21.4 Billion in Losses to Syria’s Oil Industry
AFP reports that Syria’s oil and gas industries have suffered $21.4 billion in losses since the start of the country’s conflict.
“The circumstances the country is going through have caused considerable losses to the oil and gas sectors,” Oil Minister Suleiman Abbas said Tuesday, adding that the war has led to a $3.5 billion direct loss, “in terms of stolen and wasted oil and gas, and damage or theft of infrastructure, pipelines and vehicles.” There were also $17.9 billion in lost profits.
“At the start of the revolt, Syria produced 385,000 barrels of oil a day. Production has dropped to 17,000 barrels a day, while gas production has been halved,” the wire writes. “In recent months, the jihadist group ISIS has taken control of all the main oil fields in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria. It is exporting oil through middlemen to Iraq and Turkey. Meanwhile, since last Thursday, the Syrian regime army has been trying to expel ISIS from the gas field at Shaer, in Homs province.”
Jihadists Organize Tours of Their Syria and Iraq Territory
AFP reports that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is organizing tourism in the territory under its control, which now stretches from the Iraqi city of Mosul to the eastern Syrian city of Raqqa. Activists said the tours started operating immediately after the group’s June offensive in Iraq.
“Known for kidnapping, public stonings, lashings and executions, [it] is now expanding into tourism, taking jihadists on honeymoon and civilians to visit other parts of its ‘caliphate,’” the wire writes. “Running twice-weekly tours from Syria’s Raqqa to Iraq’s Anbar, ISIS’s buses fly the group’s black flag and play jihadist songs throughout the journey.
“One of the first clients was Chechen jihadist Abu Abdel Rahman al-Shishani, aged 26, who took his new Syrian wife on honeymoon, according to activist Hadi Salameh. ‘Just after they got married, he took her to Anbar. These jihadists are very romantic,’ Salameh joked. But the two weren’t able to sit together, because ‘women sit in the back, and men at the front. The bus driver plays jihadist songs all through the ride, and the IS black flag flies over the bus.’”
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