SYRIATV — broadcast
20260920 160000 UTC
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[00:00:17] 24 million cubic meters of
[00:00:23] Peace be upon you. A detailed news bulletin. We start with the headlines.
[00:00:26] Minister
[00:00:29] of Energy. Signing
[00:00:31] the presentation. From the day we started it, from a contract to build four new power plants to generate
[00:00:34] electricity in a number of
[00:00:38] Tartous, a number of
[00:00:39] the opinion of some people governorates. The Israeli occupation targets Bir Ajam forest west of
[00:00:43] which is its duty, to be Zubaydah in the central Quneitra countryside. about the prices of goods and commodities
[00:00:44] Protests in Al-Hasakah
[00:00:47] due to salaries
[00:00:50] and fuel, and the governor
[00:00:52] meat, meets Chicken,
[00:00:54] in Syria?
[00:00:55] put into operation. 10 new wells were brought into with the protesters.
[00:00:57] production, drilled and brought into The United States warns its citizens in the Middle East region.
[00:01:00] And Trump suddenly cuts
[00:01:08] to the kilo
[00:01:12] 30,000 barrels daily of
[00:01:23] the Council of Ministers, and so on. But in The Minister of Energy revealed during a hearing session in the People's Assembly that the ministry signed
[00:01:28] previous statements and a number of contracts to establish four new gas power plants
[00:01:32] to generate electricity in a number of
[00:01:36] governorates, including Deir Ezzor and Hama.
[00:01:39] By signing a contract to establish
[00:01:42] million cubic meters of four new gas plants, a combined cycle
[00:01:44] for these four plants, one of them in Muharda, one of them
[00:01:47] in Aleppo, one of them in Deir Ezzor, God willing, Deir Ezzor, imagine Deir Ezzor province
[00:01:51] until now there is no power plant. There is one in Al-Suwaidiyah near Al-Hasakah
[00:01:55] and it is very small. So we will build
[00:01:58] they perceive in a new power plant in Deir Ezzor and we have started on it, we have prepared
[00:02:00] the companies, God willing, so these four plants will
[00:02:04] And we buy one million cubic meters of be one in Aleppo, one in Zayzoun
[00:02:06] gas from Aqaba, from - the old plant that was destroyed - one in
[00:02:09] Deir Ezzor at Al-Taim
[00:02:12] figures he announced and in Hama at Muharda and in Aleppo, the Tarifawi area and Zayzoun
[00:02:15] with a capacity of 4000 MW, God willing, three of them will be ready
[00:02:19] in 2029 and one of them will be in
[00:02:21] 2030, God willing, these
[00:02:24] 6.3 million cubic meters of 4000 MW will be connected to the grid. Al-Bashir said
[00:02:27] that Syria needs about 800-131
[00:02:32] million dollars monthly to purchase oil derivatives and crude
[00:02:35] oil, pointing to the trend towards contracting with friendly
[00:02:40] So he insisted on the figures in a way that is, countries that produce fuel to secure needs until
[00:02:43] the country can achieve self-sufficiency.
[00:02:46] amounts were 3.2, half of this Our vision is to move towards a contract with friendly
[00:02:48] and sisterly countries that produce fuel until we achieve self-sufficiency, God willing,
[00:02:52] and then we will get rid of all these crises and these problems that the energy
[00:02:56] sector is going through. So we practically need
[00:03:01] providing us with the full cost of this 831 million dollars, nearly a billion dollars, to buy oil
[00:03:04] and oil derivatives. Al-Bashir added that
[00:03:08] electricity supply forced oil production in Syria reached about
[00:03:11] 140,000 barrels daily
[00:03:14] during a previous short period. He explained that oil production
[00:03:17] fluctuates due to
[00:03:20] conditions related to the situation of wells, production,
[00:03:24] and transportation operations.
[00:03:26] The situation of the wells, we reduced it greatly.
[00:03:30] We used to produce 14,000 on, I mean,
[00:03:33] in the occasion of the exposure in the statements, how it was 140 and today
[00:03:37] 10,000 or
[00:03:39] media reported that a force 144. Of course, we used to produce about 140,000
[00:03:42] of several tranches of barrels. Of course, people, it doesn't mean that for example, today I say
[00:03:44] 140,000 or today we produce 10,000 or 103,000, it means that tomorrow it must be
[00:03:48] 10,000. It could become 100,000, it could become
[00:03:51] 11,000. I mean, a few days ago, when fuel prices were raised,
[00:03:56] of neutralizing the infrastructure you saw road closures, crude oil stopped flowing here. The storage tanks that we
[00:04:00] now were filling stopped. Some wells stopped production, and production dropped to 98. So it's natural
[00:04:04] when I say my production today is 98, and the day before it was 18, today
[00:04:08] 14.
[00:04:09] the distributor, from So this is not a contradiction in statements. We reached a stage where it was 140
[00:04:13] thousand. Al-Bashir also noted that
[00:04:17] Syria's crude oil reserves amount to about
[00:04:20] 2.5 billion barrels,
[00:04:23] and explained that Syria has
[00:04:26] level, I benefited a lot in this 78 oil fields
[00:04:28] out military security operations starting with four gas-fired plants and 28 gas fields. The oil and gas wealth in Syria,
[00:04:32] we have 78 oil
[00:04:35] competition in partnerships with fields, 28 gas is reflected on fields. Our reserves are
[00:04:37] In fact, we have many 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil and 241. Of course, these are based on
[00:04:40] old surveys,
[00:04:42] nonsense, perhaps we have not conducted a survey yet. Currently,
[00:04:46] we have formed a committee from geology to survey
[00:04:49] in the hands of... This is something that oil and gas and the thermal map for
[00:04:53] even let enter our concerns, or even geothermal energy, in addition to the issue of generating energy from
[00:04:56] subsurface heat for geothermal. Regarding gas, Al-Bashir said that
[00:05:00] Syria's gas demand is 24
[00:05:03] million cubic meters
[00:05:05] and cannot afford daily, while local production
[00:05:07] due to their work, food, reaches about 8 million cubic
[00:05:10] meters daily. Al-Bashir indicated that the refining capacity
[00:05:14] of refineries in Syria reaches about
[00:05:16] 15,000 barrels daily.
[00:05:20] Of course, Syria's gas needs are 24 million cubic
[00:05:23] meters to operate all our currently available plants.
[00:05:26] We need
[00:05:29] gas, which we will get, God willing. Today we are producing 6 million, I mean
[00:05:33] a quarter, sorry, we were producing 6, we raised it to 8.1 after
[00:05:37] we introduced part of the Conoco plant. Of course, yesterday it was
[00:05:39] 8.4, the day we counted
[00:05:43] Wednesday and Thursday, it was 8, yesterday it was 8.4 or
[00:05:47] 8.5 million cubic meters. Before that, it reached 9 million, according to the same
[00:05:51] story of oil, closing wells and bringing new wells into service, reactivating
[00:05:55] drilling operations. We drilled about 4,840
[00:05:58] meters and brought two rigs into service after they were idle
[00:06:02] and stopped. 21 wells were
[00:06:04] repaired and 152 wells were
[00:06:09] production. This is a balance.
[00:06:13] And this is a very important point. The balance of Syria's needs.
[00:06:16] We need about 30,000 barrels
[00:06:20] daily of crude oil. We need
[00:06:25] crude oil to cover Syria's needs. I mentioned
[00:06:28] earlier last year that when the ministry was first established,
[00:06:32] we had 150,000 barrels, right? I mean, it
[00:06:35] used to cover our needs. We buy crude oil and refine it in our refineries. Banias
[00:06:39] was operating and Homs refinery was operating from production. From the refineries,
[00:06:42] we cover the local market, and this was when Syria's consumption was
[00:06:46] 15,000. Al-Bashir explained that Syria
[00:06:50] currently buys about 6.3
[00:06:55] gas daily from Azerbaijan, in addition to
[00:06:58] quantities supplied through a ship located in
[00:07:02] the Jordanian port of Aqaba at a cost of about
[00:07:05] 140 million dollars
[00:07:08] monthly. We are now buying gas five.
[00:07:13] From the north of Azerbaijan to Turkey.
[00:07:18] Jordan, from Aqaba. There is a ship there. The important thing is that Jordan, Jordan does not have gas,
[00:07:22] it is already an importer. So there is a ship that converts
[00:07:25] LNG to gas and pumps it
[00:07:28] into the Arab gas pipeline. We receive it in Syria and transfer it to
[00:07:31] power plants, the Deir Ali plant generates electricity. So I am practically buying
[00:07:36] gas daily. I am paying, before now, gas prices have risen. We were not
[00:07:40] paying this amount. We are paying currently about
[00:07:43] 140 million dollars for the gas, which is 6.3
[00:07:47] million cubic meters monthly for electricity generation. 14 million.
[00:07:51] Of course, part of it was a grant from Qatar, thank you, but the grant ended
[00:07:55] in August, and these
[00:07:58] half was purchased. Now it's all purchased, we're buying
[00:08:02] it all and paying for it. That's why when the fuel crisis occurred recently
[00:08:06] and gas prices rose significantly, the Ministry of Finance did not budget
[00:08:09] for
[00:08:13] gas. So we will reduce our gas purchases by
[00:08:17] 2 to 3 million during the coming period. Of course, this will
[00:08:21] affect electricity generation and the number of connection hours
[00:08:24] for electricity.
[00:08:26] On the sidelines of the hearing session for Minister of Energy Muhammad al-Bashir,
[00:08:30] members of the People's Assembly confirmed to Syria TV
[00:08:34] that this session came as a quick response
[00:08:37] to the demands of the street after raising fuel prices
[00:08:40] and that the Energy Committee drafted questions
[00:08:43] that represent the voice of the citizen before the executive authority.
[00:08:55] This session was a quick response, a quick response
[00:08:58] to the demands of the people after raising fuel prices.
[00:09:01] The second thing is that the questions submitted by the Energy Committee were not questions
[00:09:05] that were formulated in half an hour. For a week now,
[00:09:09] there have been specialists and engineers
[00:09:13] who wrote reports and came with statistics and formulated these
[00:09:16] questions in a way that represents the voice of the citizen
[00:09:19] before, I mean, the executive authority, and at the same
[00:09:23] time, propose recommendations and solutions. I mean, in the end, when
[00:09:26] the question is submitted by specialists, the picture is complete before
[00:09:29] the Ministry of Energy, and indeed, I mean, the briefing
[00:09:32] of the Minister of Energy and his answers to
[00:09:36] the questions today, I mean, on a personal
[00:09:39] sector, even though I am not a specialist, because he presented
[00:09:42] it in a way that reaches the citizen's ear
[00:09:44] directly.
[00:09:49] questions and suggestions. Now the entire Syrian people
[00:09:53] are waiting for this session, waiting for its outcomes, waiting for convincing
[00:09:57] answers for what happened regarding the fuel price increase that affected people's
[00:10:01] livelihoods and thus reflected negatively within Syrian
[00:10:04] society. This matter needs to be addressed, it needs future
[00:10:07] plans to be put in place to prevent this from happening again.
[00:10:10] To prevent the recurrence
[00:10:12] of sudden fuel price increases that citizens wake up to
[00:10:19] and daily income.
[00:10:23] For more, we have our correspondent
[00:10:28] Hazem Awad from Damascus. Hazem, if some members of the Syrian People's
[00:10:31] Assembly said that this
[00:10:35] session came in response to the demands of the street today,
[00:10:38] after the hearing session for the Minister of Energy, and you are in the field, what are the reactions?
[00:10:42] Honestly,
[00:10:47] the Syrians were waiting throughout this period, which some
[00:10:50] considered short, but it was long. It included protests
[00:10:54] and road closures during, I mean,
[00:10:57] a whole week. The session was postponed from Thursday to Sunday.
[00:11:00] It was, I mean, in
[00:11:04] in the Syrian street, and here specifically we are talking about Damascus, that it was late
[00:11:08] and was a repetition of some information that
[00:11:11] Syrians already know, in addition to the fact that
[00:11:15] the Minister of Energy himself had come out on Thursday and also spoke
[00:11:18] about some details in a press conference related
[00:11:21] to the reasons for raising fuel prices when he announced
[00:11:25] the segmentation of diesel into three
[00:11:28] tranches. Of course, this session
[00:11:32] was a hearing session for some questions submitted by the People's Assembly
[00:11:36] to the Minister of Energy. Some of the questions had clear
[00:11:40] answers regarding why prices were raised,
[00:11:43] which is probably the most prominent question: why did the ministry
[00:11:46] raise prices by these percentages? He affirmed that there
[00:11:50] is a mix between some
[00:11:53] the current reality. He said, which probably justifies what some
[00:11:57] referred to as a contradiction in statements, that previously,
[00:12:00] before the return of northeastern Syria to the control
[00:12:04] of the Syrian state, 15,000 barrels daily
[00:12:07] were sufficient. But after the return of those areas
[00:12:10] to the Syrian government, those areas started taking
[00:12:14] oil through the state. The unofficial wells
[00:12:17] stopped, in addition to the increase
[00:12:20] in the number of cars and the increase in production and changing circumstances.
[00:12:25] Naturally, from last year to this year,
[00:12:28] the need increased to 30,000 barrels.
[00:12:32] And he said that the capacity of the refineries is
[00:12:35] 15,000, and therefore the ministry imports
[00:12:38] the rest through imports. He also spoke about some
[00:12:42] contradictions that some talked about regarding gas. He also
[00:12:46] said that the actual need is 24 million cubic
[00:12:49] meters. Syria imports today
[00:12:51] 6.33
[00:12:54] about 8 million cubic meters. He also mentioned
[00:12:58] a point he said was perhaps a turning point during the past
[00:13:01] week, also discussed by some, regarding oil exports or the news of oil exports.
[00:13:05] It was previously promoted. He said that some do not know that
[00:13:08] Syria's production of heavy oil, part of
[00:13:12] it is stored, and therefore it is not refined,
[00:13:16] then it is collected and exported
[00:13:19] because it is heavy oil. He also said that the ministry was
[00:13:22] faced with two options: either to reduce production
[00:13:26] or to raise prices. But the demands of the tourism sector and the industrial
[00:13:29] sector for continuous
[00:13:33] the ministry to continue importing gas to generate
[00:13:37] electricity, and therefore prices were raised. There is also an important point during
[00:13:40] this session, and perhaps it is what
[00:13:43] people are discussing today, which is the issue of the smart card. The minister
[00:13:47] explicitly stated that if the members of the People's
[00:13:50] Assembly wished to return to supporting 50 liters of diesel for some
[00:13:54] occupied families through the smart card,
[00:13:57] they should submit this proposal, and he would agree to it.
[00:14:00] However, this proposal may fuel the black market, and at the same
[00:14:04] time, he said that the proposal
[00:14:07] diesel for several segments of
[00:14:10] society may involve
[00:14:14] some fraud, and he said that there may be fraud
[00:14:17] later. Both methods may have
[00:14:20] some negatives, but perhaps this is the point that the street is discussing
[00:14:24] today after this session regarding the smart
[00:14:27] card. There was also talk about the issue of electricity, and he
[00:14:31] also explained the issue of electricity. As we said a little while ago, there
[00:14:35] was an option either
[00:14:38] to stop generation or to continue importing
[00:14:42] to generate electricity. So he said
[00:14:46] that there is a problem with the infrastructure, but there are projects
[00:14:51] that are being worked on. There is a plant and
[00:14:55] a Turkish company is working on it. He also spoke
[00:14:58] about transmission lines and towers that are undergoing maintenance, but the rehabilitation
[00:15:02] process did not exceed 8%.
[00:15:05] He also spoke about distribution lines within neighborhoods, saying that
[00:15:08] they are dilapidated. There was also a project, and this is an important point, he said
[00:15:12] there is an idea to offer this for rehabilitation through a private company, but
[00:15:16] private companies want profits from this
[00:15:19] step. Otherwise, the Ministry of Energy
[00:15:22] decided to postpone this. He also pointed
[00:15:25] to the smart meter project, which may regulate
[00:15:28] consumption in the energy sector. He said that there
[00:15:32] is a contract with a Chinese company to supply
[00:15:35] meters
[00:15:37] for water and electricity. Also, regarding water, as the Ministry of Energy
[00:15:41] has several files under it,
[00:15:45] including water, gas,
[00:15:47] and fuel. He spoke about water and about projects related
[00:15:51] to building new dams, bringing water to Al-Hasakah and Deir
[00:15:55] Ezzor, in addition to bringing some fresh
[00:15:58] water that flows into the seas to be
[00:16:01] utilized. Thank you very much, from Damascus, you were
[00:16:05] with us.
[00:16:09] We have with us now Dr. Abdel Moneim Al-Halabi, academic and economic expert
[00:16:13] directly from Gaziantep. Welcome, Dr. Abdel
[00:16:15] Moneim. Did you listen at first
[00:16:18] to the answers of the Minister of Energy in the meeting session in
[00:16:22] the People's Assembly, and were you convinced by the justifications provided
[00:16:25] regarding the increase in fuel prices
[00:16:31] In reality, I did not have the opportunity to follow the session and its events
[00:16:35] live. But through the presentation method,
[00:16:38] we understood that it was, as the Minister described it, a "presentation" in every
[00:16:42] sense of the word. An introduction and a
[00:16:46] main body containing a large number of
[00:16:49] known details and figures that could have, or
[00:16:53] it would have been better if they were presented in another session, a session with
[00:16:57] investors, a session of
[00:17:00] reality, we were surprised by the
[00:17:03] enormous amount of details. It seems that being overwhelmed with details
[00:17:07] was a suitable entry point for the Minister during the previous
[00:17:11] preparation period. Also, members of the People's Assembly
[00:17:15] did not perhaps have the opportunity
[00:17:19] to raise the issues
[00:17:22] behind the increase in fuel prices.
[00:17:25] We are talking about cross-border partnerships. No
[00:17:29] questions were raised about where we import
[00:17:32] our
[00:17:35] oil derivatives from. Also, the partnerships that were
[00:17:38] signed for billions during the past period in which the People's Assembly
[00:17:41] was absent. Then regarding the discussion
[00:17:44] of the figures, the Minister insisted on the large
[00:17:49] about Syria's needs, which are, as I told you
[00:17:52] on a previous occasion, the same needs as Syria in 2010
[00:17:55] when Syria was producing 65 billion
[00:17:59] dollars of GDP and 10 or 15 billion added
[00:18:03] to it by the unofficial parallel economy.
[00:18:06] And we are now unable,
[00:18:09] and we cannot even be half of what the situation was
[00:18:13] in 2010.
[00:18:17] in reality, a rhetorical way. There are no
[00:18:20] statistics, there is no. But Dr. Abdel Moneim, I mean, when talking
[00:18:23] about what Syria needs today, it represents what it
[00:18:27] needed before the fall of the regime. But today,
[00:18:30] there is also a regional war, there is a war on Iran,
[00:18:34] there are problems at the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab
[00:18:37] Strait as well. Therefore, this affects the movement of energy and energy
[00:18:41] supplies in the region in general. No, he is talking about the quantities.
[00:18:45] The quantities are production inputs and consumption inputs.
[00:18:48] I am not talking about price levels. Perhaps, of course,
[00:18:51] price levels are much higher now. In
[00:18:55] 2008, for example, as far as I remember, the government
[00:18:58] or the state raised a significant
[00:19:02] portion of its diesel subsidy, so the liter price rose
[00:19:05] from seven Syrian pounds to 25. This incident is known to all of us, but
[00:19:09] in return, checks were distributed, what we used to call
[00:19:12] diesel checks, if you remember,
[00:19:16] 1000 liters for each family at seven
[00:19:19] Syrian pounds. Also, at the subsidized price before
[00:19:23] the increase, he is talking about the quantities. Quantities are
[00:19:26] production inputs. Are we producing today as we were producing in 2010?
[00:19:30] No. Are we consuming today as we were consuming in
[00:19:33] 2010? Also, no. Perhaps the issue of cars
[00:19:38] has come into play on a wide scale and is not studied. Then it was curbed
[00:19:41] in a shock manner. I don't
[00:19:44] know many details, but what we
[00:19:48] want is for the government's logic
[00:19:51] to be the logic of study, research, survey,
[00:19:54] and statistics. Studies,
[00:19:57] figures, a third party verifying these
[00:20:00] figures, and then building plans based on them with
[00:20:03] full transparency for all partnerships that take place.
[00:20:08] Today, for example, the issue of whether there is fair
[00:20:12] abroad, or whether political relations play the primary role.
[00:20:16] Today, the street is actually talking
[00:20:20] not true, that everything is in the hands
[00:20:23] of America, in the hands of Thomas Brack,
[00:20:27] we Syrians should not
[00:20:31] our political or economic subconscious, or the life
[00:20:34] we live. Why? Because transparency is weak. Statistics
[00:20:38] are absent, and economic partnerships are built on political relations.
[00:20:42] Ah, Dr. Abdul Moneim, there was a striking point mentioned by
[00:20:45] our correspondent, which is the issue of announcing the possibility or
[00:20:49] the approval
[00:20:51] of returning to the smart card option and harsh electricity rationing
[00:20:55] if that is passed through the People's Assembly. What do you think
[00:20:58] about this option proposed by Minister of Energy Mohammed
[00:21:01] Al-Bashir? I mean, in reality,
[00:21:05] it is a strange matter,
[00:21:07] and I heard it from your
[00:21:11] correspondent's report, but is it reasonable to talk about
[00:21:15] a subsidy of 50 liters? How many days
[00:21:17] will these 50 liters last? Ten days, for example?
[00:21:20] And why use the People's Assembly
[00:21:24] to pass such decisions?
[00:21:28] Let the government take the initiative to do what it can,
[00:21:33] present in such circumstances with the Syrian citizen in
[00:21:36] his economic needs, especially in the coming period.
[00:21:39] Then let this
[00:21:43] initiative be evaluated by the members of the People's Assembly, who should advocate
[00:21:47] for raising the ceiling of this support today. And I reiterate
[00:21:50] the figures that talk about the huge
[00:21:53] government expenditures, billions of dollars in administrative
[00:21:56] expenditures, apart from salaries and wages, compared
[00:21:59] to a few hundred millions
[00:22:02] for supporting the Syrian society
[00:22:05] and supporting the Syrian citizen. This approach in itself
[00:22:09] indicates clearly a structural
[00:22:12] flaw, a political flaw,
[00:22:16] and an economic, social, and a flaw in the government's
[00:22:19] view towards... Thank you very much, Dr. Abdul Moneim Al-Halabi,
[00:22:23] academic and economic expert from Gaziantep.
[00:22:24] From
[00:22:28] the People's Assembly hearing session on rising fuel prices
[00:22:31] to the markets, where attention is focused on the movement
[00:22:35] of food prices in conjunction with the new pricing
[00:22:38] of fuel and the decline in the exchange rate of the Syrian pound
[00:22:41] against the dollar. Syria TV surveyed residents' opinions
[00:22:45] on the changes
[00:22:48] the markets.
[00:22:51] There has been an increase in prices, almost 20% in ghee, oils,
[00:22:55] tea, and sugar. All food items
[00:22:59] have increased by almost 70%. All imported
[00:23:02] items have increased, and even local transportation costs have increased. Honestly,
[00:23:06] we were a bit affected by the rise in diesel prices. Things were affected. The dollar goes up by 300
[00:23:10] pounds, and traders raise prices by 4000-5000 pounds for every
[00:23:14] commodity, like ghee, sugar, rice, everything. Everything
[00:23:18] is getting more expensive. Rice, sugar was 8,
[00:23:21] oil was 24, now it's 27, 28.
[00:23:25] I mean, everything is getting more expensive, everything is getting more expensive. It's the traders' game, the traders
[00:23:28] in the markets. First, this oil that we are drinking
[00:23:31] and eating, for example, sugar, sugar is 10, 10.5,
[00:23:35] 11, 99.
[00:23:39] Sugar, sugar, is it really fair that this is also expensive?
[00:23:43] How much is rice today? How is it 10.5 and 11?
[00:23:46] Walnut rice. It used to be
[00:23:49] 50, now it's 80, it's 90. I bought
[00:23:52] a medium type, almost, or red.
[00:23:55] 65,000. Prices, my son, prices are really high.
[00:23:59] By God, anything you want to buy, you can't, it's very
[00:24:02] expensive. The children will be deprived of fruit. Fruit
[00:24:05] is so expensive. If you want to cook, you'll spend
[00:24:09] 20,000 and move on, and it will be a normal dish.
[00:24:13] Honestly, I see all food items are high-priced. Sugar, rice,
[00:24:16] thyme, oil,
[00:24:20] everything, everything is high-priced food items.
[00:24:23] Every two days we hear that the dollar has risen
[00:24:27] and the dollar is this and that. Now this oil is expensive. Now
[00:24:31] previously this was 20, 21. Now I bought it for
[00:24:34] 27, and this does not suit the citizen's income.
[00:24:38] And
[00:24:41] from Hama to Homs, where residents spoke to Syria TV about
[00:24:45] the prices of goods and food items and the sales activity
[00:24:48] in the city's markets.
[00:24:56] Prices are increasing every day from
[00:24:59] the farmer. The cost is high, transportation is expensive, everything
[00:25:03] is, I mean, there is no balance in prices. Banks
[00:25:06] and something else, for example, you have meat exports. This is all being paid for
[00:25:10] in dollars. Gulf countries are coming and buying,
[00:25:13] paying, and the Syrian people are deprived of all of this. Yes,
[00:25:16] prices have risen with the rise of the dollar and the difficult
[00:25:20] living conditions we are experiencing now. All of this
[00:25:25] the entire society. The rise in prices is the cause of instability
[00:25:28] in the country, because the country is still unstable. If the country's situation were stable, prices would
[00:25:32] be fixed, for sure. But the country's situation is still unstable, so there will be
[00:25:35] instability. This is 100% natural, because our country's
[00:25:39] situation is still unstable, meaning we still need another three
[00:25:43] or four years for the country's situation to relax a bit. Now, regarding vegetable
[00:25:46] prices, it's a huge amount, a huge amount.
[00:25:49] And market activity is completely dead, honestly,
[00:25:52] the market is completely gone here in Homs. The reason
[00:25:56] nobody knows. And the consequence of
[00:25:59] petrol is what affected us and affected all the people.
[00:26:02] All prices, may God help the people. A worker works but cannot
[00:26:06] afford to eat. I mean,
[00:26:10] work is scarce, and he runs here
[00:26:13] and there, but he can't catch up. And if someone has a sick person, woe to him.
[00:26:17] I mean, just let there be work in this country for these people to work,
[00:26:19] and prices won't matter. Just let there be
[00:26:22] work. What matters is for these young people to be employed
[00:26:25] and work. And prices, we don't care
[00:26:29] about prices as much as we care about work for these young people.
[00:26:33] In
[00:26:41] residents spoke to Syria TV
[00:26:44] in the markets.
[00:26:45] We continue.
[00:26:55] ordinary goods, their prices have risen.
[00:26:58] And vegetables are still cheap.
[00:27:02] And things are going well. They say that diesel prices
[00:27:06] have gone up, so they are adding, for example, 2000 Syrian pounds
[00:27:11] of chicken. So hopefully this crisis will pass,
[00:27:14] and we hope prices will go down and return to how they
[00:27:17] were before, and we will go back to how we
[00:27:20] were before. I mean, in the end, we want prices to go down,
[00:27:23] for sure, not to go up, because we are the ones who are paying in the end. We are buying essential
[00:27:27] goods. Now, of course, the fuel
[00:27:31] prices have reflected on the prices of vegetables,
[00:27:34] chicken, meat, and transportation, it's all connected,
[00:27:37] you know? And vegetables as well, I mean,
[00:27:41] food items, I mean, generally, everything
[00:27:44] is expensive. We want to buy, for example, a kilo of tomatoes, they say it's expensive because of
[00:27:48] transportation. A kilo of tomatoes, for example, used to be five, now it's 10. Cucumbers
[00:27:52] are the same, 15.
[00:27:55] For example, any goods I want to buy. Yesterday, yesterday I bought oil, I used to buy it for
[00:27:58] 105, today, yesterday I bought it for 12,000. This is injustice,
[00:28:02] I mean, it's unfair to the citizen. Every thing they tell you is because of the dollar or the rise
[00:28:05] in fuel prices, everything is expensive. the price of gasoline
[00:28:09] and fuel and everything
[00:28:13] rises with the dollar, but prices fall when
[00:28:16] the dollar falls, but prices don't fall.
[00:28:19] Prices are always rising and not
[00:28:23] falling with the dollar
[00:28:24] at all.
[00:28:40] The Israeli occupation forces shelled the village of
[00:28:43] Al-Rafid in the southern Quneitra countryside
[00:28:46] with four artillery shells, as part of a series
[00:28:49] of shelling and incursions that the southern Syrian
[00:28:52] region witnessed today. This comes amid continued Israeli
[00:28:56] attacks on areas in the south of the country,
[00:29:00] where the occupation carries out repeated incursions,
[00:29:04] shelling, and kidnappings in Quneitra and Daraa countryside.
[00:29:18] We remain in the south of the country, where the Israeli
[00:29:22] occupation army blew up former military sites near Qalaat
[00:29:25] Jandal in Jabal al-Sheikh in the western
[00:29:29] Damascus countryside, according to Syria TV correspondent.
[00:29:32] Our correspondent added that the sites that were blown
[00:29:36] up belonged to the deposed regime. For its part, Israeli
[00:29:41] from the third company of Reserve Battalion
[00:29:44] 74/90, affiliated with the Golan
[00:29:48] Brigade and Sheikh Brigade 474, blew up
[00:29:51] a Syrian site it described as advanced in the Jabal
[00:29:55] al-Sheikh area, with the aim
[00:29:58] in the border area, according to its expression.
[00:30:07] With us now from Quneitra is our correspondent Muhammad
[00:30:10] Fahd. Muhammad, let's start with Qalaat
[00:30:13] Jandal in Jabal al-Sheikh. What do we know about
[00:30:17] the military sites that the occupation army blew up
[00:30:20] there? Yes, Alaa, indeed, the Israeli occupation army
[00:30:24] advanced towards these points, towards Jabal al-Sheikh in general, after the fall of the defunct regime.
[00:30:28] And today, it is carrying
[00:30:31] towards this mountain. Today, in the morning, it advanced
[00:30:34] towards this point, called Tal Antar,
[00:30:38] and destroyed the military
[00:30:41] infrastructure in this area. It targeted it, shelled it,
[00:30:44] and completely destroyed it
[00:30:47] by the Israeli forces that advanced towards this
[00:30:51] area this morning. Of course, it is an area