Syria has 26 tons of gold in reserve, sources tell Reuters
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It was found that Syria still has 26 tons of gold in its reserves after the collapse of the Assad regime.
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Syrian citizens walk in front the building of the Syrian Central Bank in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, December 7, 2024. (AP)
Four sources revealed to Reuters that the vault of Syria's central bank contains approximately 26 tons of gold, the same quantity it held at the start of the war in 2011. However, they noted that Syria possesses only a small amount of foreign currency reserves in cash.
According to the World Gold Council, Syria's gold reserves were recorded at 25.8 tons in June 2011, with an estimated market value of $2.2 billion at current prices, based on Reuters' calculations.
One source stated that the Central Bank's foreign currency reserves amount to about $200 million in cash, while another source mentioned that the reserves of US dollars are in the hundreds of millions.
Reuters reported that while the Central Bank's reserves are not entirely in cash, the drop is actually significant compared to pre-war levels. At the end of 2011, the central bank announced foreign reserves of $14 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2010, the IMF estimated Syria's foreign currency reserves at $18.5 billion.
Current and former Syrian officials previously told Reuters that the country's US dollar reserves have been nearly depleted, as they were increasingly utilized to finance food, fuel, and war efforts.
Turmoil ahead
Political science professor and theorist at the University of Chicago John Mearsheimer said during an appearance on Going Underground published Saturday, that it is unlikely that a "coherent government" will form soon in Damascus capable of controlling the entire country.
“How this all plays out moving forward is almost impossible to say, other than it looks like there will be considerable chaos in Syria for the foreseeable future,” he remarked.
The Political Science academic at the University of Chicago also referred to the regime change as a “short-term success” for those supporting the opposition, primarily the US.
“We [the US] basically threw our lot in with a number of Al-Qaeda and ISIS operatives and they won,” Mearsheimer stated, criticizing the media for attempting to clean up the image of HTS leader Mohammed al-Jolani, who remains "a wanted terrorist" with a $10 million bounty on his head.
