Syria reintegrating with the west with Visa card and an English-language X account

Syria, now making efforts to reintegrate to the world. Damascus launched, well, an official English language account on X. The account promises updates on Syria's politics, economy, security, culture, and pushing back against what the government considers misleading reporting about the post-Assad era. But, in another minor, but carefully staged display, you see here President al-Assad used a Visa card to pay for coffee in old Damascus, highlighting the country's return to the international financial system. It hasn't been there in a long time. But, it doesn't all mean that ordinary Syrians suddenly have access to the world, or that Damascus has answered Western concerns about security, minorities, freedoms. On that note, we're joined by Omar Abu Dhab, Syrian journalist, filmmaker. Good to have you back, Omar. Uh this simply clever, I would say, public relations, is that all it is, or does it reflect a real change in how the Syrian government intends to continue engaging with the world? >> Well, thanks for having me back on. In fact, uh just a quick note note here. Uh actually, I I used the the MasterCard at the same hotel where the president was using the the Visa card in old Damascus. >> real. >> Yeah, that's a Yes, so it's a huge step forward, in fact. Let's put it this way. Uh because, you know, Syria was under uh every sanctions known to mankind. And uh for you, me, for those who lives in Europe, United States, this is a fine tradition. We use that uh for our daily purchases. There's nothing like to to be like happy about here. But, for Syrians who who actually been living under 50 years of Assad rule, cut off from the outside world, you know, the um the banking system is not connected to the international financial institutions. So, this is a huge step forward that this might indicate in the near future that Syria is actually recovering and that's might encourage more and more international financial institutions to come and join the Syrian market. So, yes, it might not reflect right away in the for ordinary Syrians to suddenly have a Visa card or Mastercards or first they have to open a bank account. But yes, it's a it's a long process. But let's talk about the the the bigger picture here which is the giants, let's say the insurance companies, the the banks. Bank of America actually was considering joining the Syrian market. So, these are my these are steps might reflect on the Syrians economy and you do know that without having a strong economy you won't be able to have a stability. So, economy is key to stability and the Syrian rulers understands that and understood the lesson. This is why they wanted Syria to be the economic center in the region. And that's why they they've been pushing for removing the sanctions and now we start seeing some of the results of removing the sanctions that Syria is reconnected to the international banking system and that's a good step forward in my opinion. >> Does how much does it reflect, you know, the reality inside the country? You touched on this a bit and definitely there are changes happening. But you know, how the government is seen behaving, I guess for lack of a better word inside the country itself. I mean, it you know, what what kind of hindrances might there be for Damascus' effort to rebrand themselves internationally? >> Well, I think as far as I'm concerned, I I was there. I I keep going back and forth to Damascus, Aleppo and elsewhere around the country. And I can see that the government has a totally different mentality from Assad regime. They're They're so hard to pull the country together. Actually, the last uh couple of days ago, there was an achievement by SDF announcing that they joining the Syrian government and the unity of the government. That's a huge step forward. There was assurances were given to Syrian Kurds that they will get their rights in in the constitutions will be written there and everything is it's not as people thought is going to be. So, yeah, there is some some efforts been put forward to allow the country to come together. The government has actually working so hard on on that regardless of the the challenges and the Syrian challenges that they're still facing the the government in Damascus. This is still a long road for the government, but hopefully with the with what happened 2 days ago with SDF joining the government and the United States removing the remaining sanctions in Syria, that would help the government and push the government give the government a push to to to do what's necessary to pull the country together and to allow the the Syrians to to breathe again. >> Yeah, definitely an underrated piece of news in much of the world. We spoke about it here like that integration of of the Kurdish forces into into the the central government and that definitely letting credibility again to what Damascus is doing with minorities in the country. What can you tell us or what do you know you know about the open channels of communication with Israel too, which from our perspective are a significant part of the reforms taking place in Damascus? >> Well, actually since day one the the entire government tried to reach out to the Israelis. They sent messages actually to Israel. Let's sit down. Let's talk. Let's tackle all the issues that we have. If you have any security concerns that we can sit down and talk about it because the new doctrine of the new Syrian government is to tackle any issue through diplomacy. It's allowed diplomacy to take over but, you know, the Israeli government is still in shock of what happened in October 7th. That is why they decided, "No, no, no, we can't move move on with this and we have to to do whatever is necessary to protect our northern border." But for Syria, the the dialogue is still on. Actually, the Israeli delegations and the Syrian delegations met a couple of few times at different places around the world and Syria said it's willing to sit down and address the Israeli concerns. And at the same time that Israel also needs to understand that Syrian sovereignty is on the line here and respect our sovereignty, we respect your safety and security. And we we give time to build the trust if we stick to the the security agreement and after that trust was built, then we can move on to the next step and start talking seriously about long-lasting peace between the two countries. But until that happened that, you know, Israel advances inside the Syrian territory, they have to move back from the buffer zone back to the to to where they come from and then we can start talking about about peace. But, you know, Israeli leaders doesn't seem to me are interested to do that at this moment and they are wasting by by the way they are wasting a huge opportunity to establish a really a serious peace with important country in the region, Syria. If they decided to reach out to the rulers of Damascus instead of attacking them and offering help, that for me would do more than the attacks and your fighter jets there. >> Yeah, that's that's something we hear increasingly. Omar, thanks for being with us. I want to bring this issue in studio and root through this directly at you. Kind of his closing claim there about Israel, you know, being increasingly perceived as sort of the warmonger that's derailing efforts from Damascus to establish relations and that there, you know, these are so many things we hear in various circles or that I hear from analysts that, you know, Israel's squandering a moment and opportunity, derailing the efforts, the outreach. What's your response to that in terms of how Israel's been, you know, dealing with Damascus in light, you know, of the strikes last week against a Turkish facility. All these things framed as Is Israel just out to derail all this, you know, good effort and goodwill from Damascus? How do you respond to that? >> I'm very, very skeptical about this line. In fact, I'd like to stress that I don't doubt what the former speaker has been saying and I'm sure that the way that he perceives it from his point of view perhaps is extremely authentic and sincere. However, Israel is not trying to derail any peace talks. Israel is watching objectively public videos of officers' courses of Al-Jazeera screaming that they're out to get and free Al-Quds, Jerusalem and Allahu Akbar and uh we have ears, we have eyes. We have a mindset that did change indeed our perceptions on October 7th, opened our eyes to the fact that we are not liked in the region and that's okay as long as we actually get it. But yes, there is a whole lot more caution and in the meantime, while we are talking and while there is a tendency to lower the flames and to try and agree upon some kind of arrangements, not normalization, not peace talks, not any of those big issues. Unfortunately, by the way, because certainly Israel has no hard feelings against the Syrians. There's there's just no such thing. Perhaps it is told to the Syrians that we do, but we do not. And yet, there is a caution, and this caution is very well placed because we saw the massacre of Druze. Very recently, we saw the massacre of others other minorities within Syria. >> Alawites, the Kurds. >> And we see and hear the rhetoric and the public statements that are being made by official security forces of al-Julani. And we also hear and follow the commentary and the declarative policy of Turkey, which is the patron of the patron at the moment of Syria. And hence, yes, Israel is cautious for the safety of its own civilians and not in an attempt to derail security arrangements and or peace negotiations. >> Um Yacoub, on a granular military level, what are the things I mean we saw, you know, Israel tried basically to stave off their Damascus incursion into southern Syria to the borderlands here. You know, we saw Israel again try to stave off further Turkish encroachment into Syria. You know, from Israel's side, what what are the main concerns on the ground militarily that they're looking at here? >> Let me give you an indication of what the Israeli concerns are. At the end of June, beginning of July, there were lots of reports in the Syrian media about a restructuring of the Syrian army. Now, what did this actually entail? Well, they divided themselves up into regions. Now they have five regional core commands. And every commander, every senior commander now in the Syrian army is a former jihadist, at least officially, and we don't know what his ideology is today. These are all Hayat al-Tahrir, which is the Islamist jihadist organization that Ahmed al-Shara led. Before that, it was Jabhat al-Nusra, which branched off from al-Qaeda. This is where they come from. Now, the idea that Israel's just suddenly going to believe that they've changed their stripes because he's swiping a credit card and you know, whispering, you know, sweet you know, poems to President Trump is not it's not going to cut it. We have to see who these people are, what their intentions are, why are they indoctrinating people in their education system to jihad. Why are they calling Jews and Christians infidels? At least at the very least, if I would see the Syrian education system producing moderate curricula and teaching children towards peace, and if I would see uh soldiers or or students finishing their courses and not screaming that they're going to liberate Jerusalem, as as Ruth just said, but saying stuff about, you know, Syrian patriotism, then I would lend a more hopeful ear to what's happening in Syria. That's not what we're seeing. We cannot afford to ignore those warning signs, and so I think Israel's suspicion is very skeptical, but I will just add, just like in the other arenas, I think what we need to see from our own government is a clear diplomatic vision put forward saying these this is what we need to see if we're going to dismantle our buffer zone. Let's have something out in the open so that at least we can be measured by by our word and our vision, rather than inviting once again others to fill in a diplomatic vacuum. >> Tell the story. >> Yeah, exactly.