Making a killing: Foes profit from trade across frontlines
Barrels of oil, sacks of sugar, crates piled with fruit: goods worth millions of dollars crisscross Syria’s battlefronts daily, waved through by bitter enemies who have become business partners. Syria’s regime, rebels, Kurds, and even jihadists are linking up with well-connected businessmen to turn a profit at crossings connecting otherwise divided territory. Multiple sources from rebelheld parts of Syria including military commanders, businessmen, fighters, and residents have described to AFP a sprawling, quasi-official network of deals and arrangements on cross-country trade. Critics say they have allowed armed groups and businessmen, some linked with President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime, to profit from the divisions tearing Syria apart.
Sweet deal
One key junction where business takes place is Morek, between the northwestern province of Idlib - which is held by various rebel and jihadist forces - and governmentcontrolled Hama. On the rebel side, Morek is managed by Al-Qaeda’s onetime Syria branch Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), with the other side run by government forces. Year round, vegetables, biscuits and clothes leave Idlib, while fuel, sugar, and spare car parts are trucked in through Hama from across swathes of government-held territory, sources at the crossing and others familiar with operations there said.
“Morek is the most important crossing between rebels and the regime, given the trade coming and going through there,” said Abu al-Huda Al-Sorani, who administers the border for HTS. “It’s an official transit point recognized by us both, and it’s the money that makes things move.” In an interview with an AFP correspondent at the crossing, Sorani said Morek “was opened with the mediation of businessmen who have links with the regime”. “One man monopolizes the trade on the regime side,” he said.
Sorani declined to provide a name for the businessman, but multiple sources familiar with operations at the crossing pointed to a mysterious businessman known only as Ghawar. One source in opposition-held territory with close knowledge of the crossing said Ghawar pays Syrian government forces at least $1 million every few months for exclusive use of a stretch of the M5 highway leading to Morek.
The source, and others interviewed by AFP, spoke on condition of anonymity fearing a backlash from rebel or regime forces for revealing details of trade operations. Ghawar, who acts as a frontman for regime-linked businessmen, also sets duties paid by each truck passing through loyalist checkpoints before they reach the crossing, the source said. On the other side, HTS monopolizes sugar sales in opposition zones and bans female livestock from leaving Idlib to maximize breeding in rebel areas and keep the regime dependent on them.
“No one can trade in sugar unless they’re covered by HTS, because of its high revenue,” the source said. HTS also sets export fees. On July 8, an AFP correspondent saw stonemasons protesting near Morek after duties per truckload jumped from $400 to $1,500. Ultimately the demonstrators managed to force prices back down.
Coming and going
“With zones across Syria controlled by various forces, border trade between them has become a fait accompli,” said Ayman al-Dassouky, an analyst at the Turkey-based Omran Centre. “It brings mutual benefit to the warring sides who have allied themselves with businessmen taking advantage of the current situation to boost trade,” Dassouky said. The crossings were “generating millions for the forces which hold them and businessmen who trade across them,” he said. They provide rebels with a vital source of revenue, he said, “especially with the dwindling external support to them, mainly from the Gulf”.
But trade across the front line is also crucial for the regime. “Its forces and loyalist militias make a profit which ultimately guarantees their loyalty, and big traders close to the regime benefit from deals on duties,” said Dassouky. The phenomenon of enemies doing business together is widespread across conflicts, said Bassam Abou Abdallah, who heads the Damascus Centre for Strategic Studies. “In all wars, not just in Syria, these guys become the warlords. A web of interests is spun between the warring sides because of economic benefits,” Abou Abdallah said.
Business at Morek is so good that rival Islamists wanted a slice, and have tried in recent months to set up their own crossing from Idlib into Hama. Ahrar al-Sham, a hardline faction once allied to HTS but which has fought against it since last year, attempted to establish trade through the Qalaat al-Madiq crossing it controls, about 30 km west of Morek. HTS objected and so far only a limited number of goods are passing through the Madiq crossing. “HTS forbade large trucks from reaching the Madiq crossing so Morek would remain number one for trade,” said a rebel commander based near Madiq.
Wealth from war
Despite being bitter enemies, Kurds and Turkishbacked rebels are also running crossings linking territory under their control. The Hamran junction in Aleppo province is held by Kurdish militiamen on one side and the Levant Front, rebels loyal to Ankara, on the other. Up to 60 crude oil tankers transit through Hamran from Kurdish areas daily to be refined in opposition zones, a rebel official at the checkpoint said. Trade moves in the other direction too, with Ankara ultimately dictating what goes from rebel areas to Kurdish territory, he told AFP.
“Fertilizer is banned because it can be used to make explosives, and cement and metal too because they’re used for blast walls against us,” the official said. Crossings are cash cows for well-placed businessmen, especially those bringing goods to besieged areas. — AFP