Iran to cement its presence in the administrative sector after deepening economic involvement in

Iran to cement its presence in the administrative sector after deepening economic involvement in

On February 21, 2022, the Minister of Administrative Development in the Syrian regime's government signed a memorandum of understanding with Iran on cooperation in the field of administrative affairs and human resources.

This understanding contributes to deepening Iran’s engagement in the infrastructure and administration structures of the public sector in Syria. In fact, such a step comes in parallel with the Iranian efforts to consolidate its influence socially through spreading Shiism and forced demographic change policies as well as real estate purchases in most cities. Moreover, Iran tries to enhance its presence economically through investing in infrastructure, signing long-term agreements and establishing private companies with relatively high importance.

Iran looks forward to making its presence in Syria not necessarily linked to the survival of the regime. Rather, it appears that it is preparing for the post-Bashar al-Assad phase; By deepening its influence in society and its engagement in public and private institutions. It can be said, however, that Iran relies on the joint memoranda of understanding that were signed in the administrative and economic aspects to ensure the following:

• Recovering portion of the high costs of the war waged by Iran in Syria, which has spent nearly $30 billion since the outbreak of the protests in 2011.

• Recovering the debts that Iran had granted to the Syrian public sector in order to ensure its steadfastness in performing its tasks at a minimum, which amounted to more than 1$2 billion within 10 years.

• Expanding and facilitating the work and activities of Iranian merchants and companies, especially those associated with its militias in the Middle East, to ease the burden of financing on the state treasury. In this regard, Iran is trying to reproduce part of Hezbollah's experience in penetrating the Lebanese public sector and official institutions.

• Facilitating the transfer of funds and finding collaborators at present, in the hope of facilitating business and issues related to the policy of evading sanctions. In addition, to facilitate the work of individuals and groups in Syria in the future. This, in fact. serves Iran's expansionist policy not only in Syria, but also in the whole region.

• Relieving the pressure on the Iranian government, especially some trends suggest that foreign wars have not been fruitful. Therefore, Iran is working hard to reap the economic gains not only in Syria, but also in Iraq, from which it was able to collect billions of US dollars through economic investments, specifically from gas sales and electricity supplies.