Arab states want President Bashar al-Assad to reduce Syria’s drug trafficking in order to improve ties. The demands of Damascus complicate everything.
Assad was readmitted to the Arab League, a significant step in his regional rehabilitation. This is even as the West continues to shun him after years of civil war.
Arab leaders urge Syria to cease producing and smuggling amphetamine captagon. The West and Arab states accuse Syria of exporting.
Arab nations are concerned about the captagon trade, and the return of millions of Syrian refugees.
While denying any participation, Damascus has exploited the trade, for which Syrian officials and family members have been sanctioned by the West.
According to three people familiar with the conversation, Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad reminded his Arab counterparts on May 1 that captagon reduction was contingent on Arab pressure on the US to relieve sanctions.
He linked refugee return to reconstruction aid for Syria, where over 5 million people have fled to neighboring countries during the violence that has killed hundreds of thousands.
Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity. The Jordan summit was described as “quite tense” by one participant, owing to Arab ministers’ displeasure with Mekdad’s tone.
Air raids
Ministers from Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan agreed during the summit that Syria would help eradicate drug trafficking and identify drug manufacturers and carriers over the next month.
Jordan struck Syria on Monday, killing a drug smuggler and targeting a Hezbollah factory, according to local and intelligence authorities.
Hezbollah, which dispatched terrorists to Syria to back Assad, denies any involvement in drug trafficking.
Assad crushed his rebel opponents, some of whom got backing from US-allied Arab nations, who have recently restored ties with Iran and Russia. Saudi Arabia is reconciling with Iran, which backs Assad.
The fighting has decimated Syria’s infrastructure, communities, and industries.
Captagon has amassed vast fortunes for Syria’s war economy.
According to a senior Jordanian official, Jordan told Syria that drugs pose a danger to its national security.
“The border pressure is great, and these are not gangs. “Iran-backed militias in the state support it,” the source added.
Prepared to invest
According to a regional source close to Damascus and a Syrian source close to the Gulf with contacts, Saudi Arabia, a key captagon market, had offered compensation for the trade’s loss if it ceased.
According to the regional source, Riyadh offered $4 billion based on trade figures.
On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia denied funding Syria. “The kingdom has not offered $4 billion to Syria,” the official said.
“They must stop exporting drugs,” said Gulf Arab officials in the region, “and they know that the Gulf is ready to invest when there are signs that this is actually happening.”
Two Western individuals with knowledge of Arab-Syrian ties said that a pay-off would be required to wean state-linked armed troops from the captagon trade.
In recent weeks, the United States, United Kingdom, and European Union have sanctioned Damascus over captagon. They accuse Bashar’s brother, Fourth Division commander Maher al-Assad, of assisting in the production and trafficking of captagon.
US sanctions on Assad remain in effect.
Last month, US Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf urged regional partners to seek compensation for breaking the ice with Assad.
“I would put ending the captagon trade right up there with the other issues,” she said.
According to Mohanad Hage Ali of the Carnegie Middle East Center, Assad’s acute need for foreign assistance will change refugee and captagon cooperation.
“The regime’s ability to deliver is as limited as its sovereignty, which is now shared among a number of actors”—Russia, Iran, and local paramilitary groups—he said.
