Saudi’s Syria push gets roads, rails and data links

Saudi Arabia is laying the transport and infrastructure links for its Syria push. Transport Minister Saleh Al-Jasser’s visit to Damascus yielded four MoUs to develop Syria’s roads, railways, aviation, and postal services, while parallel talks advanced a submarine-cable link and a flynas-backed airline, the ministry said in separate X posts.

OUR TAKE- Riyadh will use Syrian reconstruction to reduce its own exposure to regional chokepoints. With the Red Sea disrupted and Hormuz throttled, a transit-aviation-telecoms link running Gulf-to-Europe through Syria and Jordan gives the Kingdom overland and digital routes that bypass contested waterways entirely. It also pulls Damascus into the Gulf economy and gives Saudi private capital an early foothold in reconstruction before the field gets crowded.

The timeline: The MoUs set a six-month window to identify connection points and an implementation plan, and run five years, automatically renewable, the Syrian transport minister told Alarabiya (watch, runtime: 1:00).

Private capital gets an in: The agreements also open the door to Saudi private-sector companies looking to take part in Syria’s infrastructure rebuild, Al-Jasser told Alarabiya (watch, runtime 1:00). Saudi companies have already submitted bids to develop Syria’s postal service, Syrian Communications Minister Abdul Salam Haykal told Asharq Business.

Next stop: the seabed. A digital infrastructure agreement expected to be signed in Riyadh next week would connect submarine cables landing on the Syrian coast to networks in Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, creating an alternative Europe-to-Asia data route running through to Oman.

ALSO- Flynas is close to launching Flynas Syria with Syrian Airlines, having begun licensing and recruitment, with a launch expected before year-end, Syria’s civil aviation head Omar Al-Hosari told Asharq Business.

REMEMBER- The two countries have signaled they want a rail link through Jordan and Syria within three to four years, carrying goods, oil, gas, and passengers on to Turkey and Europe. These agreements join a growing pipeline of Saudi investment in Syria across energy, aviation, telecoms, and real estate, including the SAR 7.5 bn Aleppo airport redevelopment, STC’s national fiber network, and the Flynas JV.

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