Iran will build a mobile phone network and petrol terminal in Syria under deals signed in Tehran yesterday during a visit by Prime Minister Imad Khamis, Iranian media reported, reports AFP.
The five deals include a “licence for a mobile phone operator, the transfer of 5,000 hectares for the creation of a petrol terminal and 5,000 hectares for farmland” in Syria, according to the IRNA news agency.
Iran will also have the right to operate phosphate mines in Sharqiya, around 50 kilometres south of the jihadist-held ancient city of Palmyra, and a deal for Iran to invest in an unnamed Syrian port.
Tehran is the chief backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, providing military advisors and coordinating thousands of “volunteer” fighters on the ground, which were considered vital to last month’s recapture of the rebel stronghold in Aleppo.First vice-president, Eshagh Jahangiri, said Khamis’s visit marked “a new page for economic activities between the two countries”.