By Timour Azhari
DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Syria has carried out its first international bank transaction via the SWIFT system since the outbreak of its 14-year civil war, its central bank governor said on Thursday, a milestone in Syria’s push to reintegrate into the global financial system.
Central bank governor Abdelkader Husriyeh told Reuters in Damascus that a direct commercial transaction had been carried out from a Syrian to an Italian bank on Sunday, and that transactions with U.S. banks could begin within weeks.
“The door is now open to more such transactions,” he said.
Syrian banks were largely cut off from the world during the civil war after a crackdown by Bashar al-Assad on anti-government protests in 2011 led Western states to impose sanctions, including on Syria’s central bank.
Assad was ousted as president in a lightning offensive by Islamist-led rebels last year and Syria has since taken steps to re-establish international ties, culminating in a May meeting between interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and U.S. President Donald Trump in Riyadh.
The U.S. then significantly eased its sanctions and some in Congress are pushing for them to be totally repealed. Europe has announced the end of its economic sanctions regime.
Syria needs to make transfers with Western financial institutions in order to bring in huge sums for reconstruction and to kickstart a war-ravaged economy that has left nine out of 10 people poor, according to the United Nations.
Husriyeh chaired a high-level virtual meeting on Wednesday bringing together Syrian banks, several U.S. banks and U.S. officials, including Washington’s Syria envoy Thomas Barrack.
The aim of the meeting was to accelerate the reconnection of Syria’s banking system to the global financial system and Husriyeh extended a formal invitation to U.S. banks to re-establish correspondent banking ties.
“We have two clear targets: have U.S. banks set up representative offices in Syria and have transactions resume between Syrian and American banks. I think the latter can happen in a matter of weeks,” Husriyeh told Reuters.
Among the banks invited to Wednesday’s conference were JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Citibank, though it was not immediately clear who attended.
(Reporting by Timour Azhari, Editing by Gareth Jones and Timothy Heritage)
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