On Wednesday, 6 August 2025, Syria signed a number of Investment Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with a number of international organisations. The total value of the MoUs is an estimated $14 billion. It includes 12 strategic projects within the sectors of infrastructure, transport, and real estate development. At least that is how the deals are being presented through the Syrian media. However, it is worth asking who are these companies? What are the back-channel deals? Who really controls these companies? Why are the deals suddenly taking place now? What are the long-term objectives of such cosmetic deals in a country fractured by internal conflict and instability?
The first MoUs were signed back in late May 2025. Among the first that took prominence on 29 May, and then in August, is UCC Holding, which is very much involved in Syria’s energy sector. According to a statement from Syria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time, the MoU stipulated:
The development of four combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants: Tarifawi (1,500 MW), Mhardeh (1,000 MW), Zayzoun (750 MW), and Deir ez-Zor (750 MW), in addition to Syria’s first solar power plant with a capacity of 1,000 MW in the south — bringing the total to 5,000 MW, using American and European [emphasis added] technology. The project will be implemented under BOO and BOT models, with power purchase agreements. Work is scheduled to begin once final agreements are concluded, with the gas plants to be completed within 3.5 years, and the solar plant operational in less than two years.
The photo below is from a press conference by the Energy Minister, Eng. Mohamed Al-Bashir, and the CEO of UCC and Power International Holding, Mr. Ramez Al-Khayyat, at the People’s Palace, Damascus, after signing MoUs with international companies in the field of energy.
Tarifawi is in the Homs (central) province, Mhardeh is northern Hama/southern Idlib, and Deir Ezzor is east of the Euphrates River. The stations’ construction sites were handed over to UCC Holding in June.
The consortium included Qatar’s UCC Holding, Power International, and Turkey’s Kalyon Energy and Cengiz Energy — all specialising in conventional and renewable energy. The signing ceremony took place in Damascus, attended by Thomas Barrack, the U.S. Special Envoy to Syria, Khalifa Abdullah Al Mahmoud Al Sharif, Chargé d’Affaires at Qatar’s Embassy, and Burhan Koroglu, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey.
The Links Back to Syrian Business Elites Who Operated under the Previous Government
All the companies that signed at the time were recognised organisations. The question raised by analysts still on the ground in Syria is an important one. The CEO of UCC Holding is Ramez Al Khayyat, the nephew of prominent Syrian businessman Mohammed Hamsho who was considered a key economic ally of the previous government and a close business associate of Maher Al Assad, the brother of Bashar Al Assad.
Ramez Al-Khayyat is a Syrian businessman residing in Qatar. He is Chairman of Urbacon Trading & Contracting (Qatar), and owner or chairman of more than 14 companies and corporations including ‘Al-Khayyat Trading & Contracting’ and ‘Haynes Design & Consultancy’. He holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Damascus University.
The Al-Khayyat family had publicly declared support for the Syrian ‘uprising’, aka the regime change war, and openly funded it, hosting many opponents of the Assad regime in Qatar. In September 2012, Syria’s then-Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Jleilat, issued Decision No. 1588/W to seize the assets of the Al-Khayyat family (Raslan and his sons), but the decision did not include Mrs. Somaya Hamsho (Raslan’s wife and Mohammed Hamsho’s sister), or the wives of the sons (Ramez, Moataz, and Mohammed), which was contrary to the Syrian Ministry of Finance asset seizure regulations. Those regulations require the inclusion of both the spouse and children.
Hamsho maintained that there was a deep political rift with his nephews, and he remained as one of the most powerful of the Syrian elite with connections to the deep state until the fall of the former Government in December 2024. He then left Syria but returned, having surrendered interests worth $650 million to the Jolani regime and was rewarded with 24-hour protection. Now, it appears that he might be influencing the business landscape in Syria again through the Al Khayyat family connections.
This demonstrates the shifting alliances within Syria that deepened in complexity after the Trump-Caesar Act suffocated Syrian society from 2020 onwards. Corruption had always existed on some level, as it does in every country in the world today, but the US-orchestrated economic crash from 2020 onwards exacerbated the situation and increased the potential for corruption to flourish and expand.
The correlation between economic and military coercion was made clear by Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s pointman on Syria, Ambassador James Jeffrey, who not only described Al Qaeda as a “US asset” in Syria, but also bragged openly about the misery that sanctions had brought to the Syrian people:
And of course, we’ve ratcheted up the isolation and sanctions pressure on Assad, we’ve held the line on no reconstruction assistance, and the country’s desperate for it. You see what’s happened to the Syrian pound, you see what’s happened to the entire economy. So, it’s been a very effective strategy ...
Who Will Account for the Investment Pledges in Syria?
The value of the MoU with UCC Holdings stands at a whopping $7 billion. Compare this project in an extremely unstable environment to similar projects in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and India as follows: the Beni Suef CCGT power plant in Egypt (4,800 MW) cost $2.7 billion, the Fadhili CCGT plant in Saudi Arabia (1,500 MW) cost $1.5 billion, and the Gautami CCGT plant in India (1,000 MW) cost $0.8 billion. It would be sensible to estimate the project cost closer to $3.5-4 billion based on such precedents. How is the excess explained? Are we entering a similar paradigm as we witnessed in Iraq post US-invasion, where the ‘reconstruction’ of Iraq was the largest American-led occupation programme since the Marshall Plan? Where billions were distributed, allegedly for the Iraqi people, but disappeared into unaccounted-for slush funds for US operatives or contractors?
On 24 July, the Jolani regime announced the launch of the ‘Syrian-Saudi Investment Forum’, which was also held at the Presidential Palace, and where MoUs worth around $6.4 billion were signed. Without going into the same level of detail — since the Saudi companies are well-known and without suspicious backgrounds — the timing was important.
The event took place during the massacres in Suwayda, carried out by Jolani’s militia and Tribal proxies, under the cover of ‘Arab tribal mobilisation’. It is clear that Saudi Arabia came to Damascus during these horrific events for two reasons. First, it was meant to help Jolani save face and to restore his popularity that was in danger of collapse as the Suwayda slaughter was publicly exposed to be his responsibility. Second, it was meant to secure a portion of the Syrian ‘cake’ for Saudi Arabia as part of their own policy to contain Qatar and Turkey in Syria. It was evident that Jolani’s authority was close to failure, and it was important that Saudi Arabia lock in its investment agenda for the future.
This was quickly followed by the most recent investment conference on 6 August, entrenching a shadow economy model similar to the one that Jolani presided over in Idlib. Created amidst extreme poverty post-regime change war and the collapse of state institutions since the coup in December 2024 with full backing from Qatar, Ankara, and Washington, with Saudi Arabia and the UK also working to occupy through a reconstruction debt programme.
In August, another issue raised its head. While the prior agreements had been made with legitimate entities on paper, the MoUs signed in August front companies with questionable legitimacy, with the following notable exceptions:
UCC Qatar returned to take over Damascus International Airport with a $4 billion MoU to develop and expand it into a regional gateway complying with international standards, according to Omar Al-Hasri, head of Syria’s Civil Aviation Authority. With $7 billion previously in the energy sector, UCC under Ramez Al-Khayyat (Mohammed Hamsho’s nephew) now holds $11 billion in total investments — the largest share among the companies — plus smaller investments from affiliated firms.
NIC (National Investment Corporation) – UAE: A prominent state-owned Abu Dhabi company signed a $2 billion MoU for the alleged Damascus Metro project, stretching from Muadamiyat al-Sham to Qaboun over 26.5 km, with 17 stations and a daily capacity of 750,000 passengers. The idea isn’t new; it was proposed in the 1980s, but was rejected due to logistical challenges — Damascus being an ancient city where excavation risks its heritage — and the lack of sufficient average income to make it viable. It resurfaced in 2008 as the ‘Green Line’, but it was never executed for the same reasons. Today, the project is back at an exorbitant cost. By comparison, Dubai Metro, one of the most advanced in the world, extending 90 km with 55 stations, cost around $4.9 billion. The fact it is again resurfacing with UAE at the helm points to the intention to erase Arab history and culture and to replace it with Arab Gulf state-high rise, smart city constructs.
Below is the proposed map of the ‘Metro’:
Al-Hazza Group – Jordan: Headed by Dr. Zuheir Hazza, specialising in food industries and energy, signed a $17 million MoU for the Dama Saray Hotel in Deir ez-Zor. This is odd, given the city’s severe destruction and urgent need for housing, not tourism.
Al-Muhandisin Mall – Aleppo: To be implemented by ‘Sankari Holding' under Yusuf Sankari, a full-scale commercial complex in northern Syria, 32,000+ m² over eight floors, costing $25 million.
Invest Group Overseas: Owned by well-known Syrian businessmen Mowaffaq Al-Qaddah and Anas Kuzbari with companies in the UAE. He took over the already-existing Marota City project in Damascus to complete it.
The Companies That Raise Questions
UBAKO-I Srl– Italy: Signed a $2.5 billion MoU for the Damascus Towers project, with 60 towers, 20,000 apartments, and 25 floors each. Official Italian records show it was founded 8 April, 2022, with capital of €16,000 (€12,000 in cash, and the rest in fixed assets). In 2022, its annual revenue was €209,000, with a loss of €3,316 and debts totaling €43,715 to date, with only one employee in 2025.
No ownership or board information is available, except the CEO is Giovanni Rossi and the COO is Alessia Conti; no verifiable details could be found. The company’s Facebook link redirects to the personal page of Bassam Al-Sabaa, who claimed ownership of a ‘Grade A contracting company in Damascus’ and quickly clarified the company’s identity online amid controversy — revealing it to be Syrian, not Italian; it is essentially a ‘shell company’ used to conceal the identity of the true owner for tax evasion purposes.
Additionally, documents have been sent to the author (in Arabic) that show that Bassam Al Sabaa is involved in fraud cases and is being pursued by several banks in Syria. This inpidual signed off on MoUs for $2.5 billion with Jolani’s approval. How will this pledge be fulfilled by a company that appears incapable of fulfilling it? Who will benefit from such a deal? Not the Syrian people.
POLiDEF – Turkey: Signed an MoU for a recycling and sustainability project in Idlib (value undisclosed). The company logo is in the image below, which was on display during the MoU signing ceremony.
POLiDEF was established on 1 July 2021 as a hardware company owned by Ali Can Koc. It never engaged in any significant commercial activity, and it was removed from the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce register more than two years ago. Suddenly Mr. Ali Can Koc reappeared on 25 July 2025 (see the screenshot below) to re-register a new company with the same name but in the ‘engineering industry’. In just two weeks of ‘accumulated experience’, the company, born from the ashes of hardware, succeeded in winning contracts in the specialist aviation sector in Syria with claimed experience in the ‘repair and maintenance of spacecraft’.
AFRINA Construction and Urban Development Company – Saudi Arabia: Headed by Syrian Khalil Balbi, who previously executed projects in northern Syria with close ties to Jolani’s repressive rule. They signed an MoU for 608 housing units in Aleppo’s Haydariyah district of 250,000 m² over two years, valued at $40 million.
White Room, which has a website under construction, was founded by Khalid Al-Njm and managed by Yamen Al-Shami. According to its Facebook and Instagram accounts, the company is based in Idlib. The company signed a MoU for a massive residential project in Hama, called ‘Yasmine Hama’, in the Wadi Al-Joz area. The project will include 26 residential towers and 2,600 apartments.
Marsa Shams – Latakia: $150 million hotel and tourism project by ‘Miras Investment’. No matching online presence or information was found. Do they even exist?
Boulevard Homs: Recreational project by Kuwait’s Al-Omran Real Estate Development, and owned by Syrian businessman Rifai Al-Hamadi, featuring 4,500 apartments, a central park, sports facilities, restaurants, and services — essentially a revival of Governor Eyad Ghazal’s 2005 ‘Homs Dream Project’, but on disputed lands with ongoing legal cases, raising serious concerns of back-channel deals to secure the lands.
Tartous Marina: Tourism project by ‘Royal Group’ including hotels, restaurants, pools, private beaches, malls, yacht marina, ping, and fishing. No trace of the company was found.
Thomas Barrack: Trump’s Economic Hitman in Syria
I will soon be doing a deep dive into the sordid history of Thomas Barrack and his role in the economic plunder of Syria and the wider West Asia region. Barrack is not just the US ambassador to Turkey and Syria; more importantly, he’s a close friend of Donald Trump and a well-known investor, accused of colluding with Gulf states to fund Trump’s previous election campaign, and of seeking hundreds of millions in investments from the UAE while illegally lobbying the Trump administration on its behalf. He is a double dealer who is now in charge of the money laundering schemes in Syria that will line the pockets of the global capitalist elites.
It is important to note that these are all MoUs, not implementation contracts. Even in the most stable countries, MoUs fail to execute for many reasons, such as logistical, legal, or funding shortfalls. In a country like Syria, where the climate is toxic and volatile, and external and internal agendas will clash and oppose one another, there is no guarantee of implementation. Even if they do get off the ground, it will not be in the near future.
All the companies, especially the shadier ones, will require finance from external banking sectors, which is impossible under the current sanctions that are still in place, despite Trump’s theatrics. The signing pomp and ceremony with Barrack in attendance was a sideshow to the chaos and bloodshed that is ongoing in Syria: the atrocities committed by the Jolani Takfiri proxies and loyal militia. Even now, there is no improvement in the Syrian economy; rather, it is deteriorating fast. Investors are not fooled by these grand-scale gestures. Nobody of any calibre trusts the Syrian state under Al Qaeda, and no amount of MI6 grooming or rebranding is going to restore faith. A friend in Syria told me recently:
In fact, Syrian banks now face a severe liquidity crisis, allowing withdrawals only for salaries, and even then with limits (personal example: I was told by my bank I could only withdraw 300,000 SYP weekly if the deposit was a salary).
What’s really happening is these companies bear no real cost — anyone can set up a shell company for under $2,000, receive an exclusive project right from Jolani under an MoU, approach banks for financing, start the project, and have the Syrian state foot the bill. UCC, for example, which took over Syria’s power sector, plans to list the entire investment on the New York Stock Exchange through a subsidiary, as revealed by a Syrian economic analyst on state TV — meaning it will profit from both selling electricity to Syrians and selling the sector on the US market.
What Jolani is doing is to deceive Syrians with the delusion of economic and investment victories that will have zero positive impact on the lives of ordinary Syrians. They don’t need high rise luxury apartment blocks, a metro, or elite hotel complexes. They need food, water, hope, and a restoration of dignity and sovereignty. The ‘revolution’ has brought nothing but increased poverty, sectarian pride, dependency on foreign aid, and near total societal collapse, with much of Syrian territory now under the control of predatory external forces and Takfiri proxies.
An economic analyst in Syria pointed out:
On the ground, the situation is dire: municipal and provincial mismanagement, security, media, and political confusion, and economic disasters piling up. One MoU-signing company has capital of only €16,000 and just two employees. Meanwhile, ‘revolutionary families’ reap the gains — from Jolani’s brothers Maher and and Hazem Al-Shar’a to Hassan Al-Daghim and other HTS power brokers — while poverty deepens, migration rises, and unemployment hits record levels, with no vision, plan, or shame from this authority. It’s an absurd farce, but a tragic one — played out on the stage of a vanishing homeland whose people can’t afford a daily meal.
Previously, the Syrian state offered free healthcare, education, and subsidies for electricity and fuel, selling them to citizens at low prices. Now, after privatising these sectors and with falling incomes, how can Syrians pay for electricity when they can barely feed themselves?
So, what we are witnessing is the tragic repeat of what was done to Iraq after the US destroyed it. As journalist and historian Dirk Adriaensens wrote in 2021:
Of course there was corruption during Saddam’s reign, as is the case in all countries around the world, but many Iraqis recall that, after the devastating US air strikes during operation Desert Storm in 1991, power stations and other facilities were patched up quickly using only Iraqi resources, while, despite the $53 billion ‘aid’ for the ‘reconstruction’ spent since the 2003 invasion, 70 percent of Iraqis have no decent access to drinking water or electricity. The available funds went into the pockets of foreign contractors and corrupt officials.
Everything ‘signed’ and celebrated on the stage of fraud and extortion is, effectively, broad daylight robbery from the Syrian people, many of whom have already lost everything after 14 years of a war waged against them by those who put Jolani in power. Syria is being converted into a crony-capitalist entity, soon to be a debt slave to the West, with a slim chance of resurrecting the once-staunchly independent and sovereign state of Syria that was the flagship of the Resistance Axis for decades. In less than a year, Jolani has squandered that proud history for a seat at the Colonialist Axis table. It is a seat that will be taken from him at the first opportunity.
Barrack’s role in propping up Jolani, at least for now, in coordination with Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia is clear: to divide Syria into spheres of economic interest, and to take his cut and/or Washington’s cut from every contract.
Most international estimates value the reconstruction of Syria at between $250-500 billion. This is an issue not even addressed yet by those who would build Dubai-style towers on the rubble and unquantifiable sacrifice of the former Syrian Arab Army. The MoUs serve the interests and agendas of the vulture-states and underpin the shadow state regime headed by Jolani and Hazem Al Sharaa. Whether or not anything is implemented, the reality remains: the misery of extreme poverty, displaced people trapped in camps, the ongoing slaughter of minorities, and theft of their homes, accompanied by obscene ceremonial media spectacles to distract from the accelerated collapse of Syrian society and culture.
Just as in Iraq, corruption existed under Assad’s leadership, this is undeniable, and its expansion can be explained by the increase in post-conflict devastating universal coercion measures or sanctions — but there were existing institutional processes that required tenders, parliamentary ratification, and cabinet and presidential approval.
None of the MoUs signed by Jolani went through any legal or constitutional channels. They are not approved by popular opinion, and they do not represent the will of the people. They represent the conversion of Syria into another Northern Cyprus: a hub for external state interests, mafia dealings, deep state corruption, and gangster finance. It will be a spiralling debt vortex that no country ever really fully recovers from, one that threatens to plunge the Syrian people into a chasm of hopelessness from which there will be no escape. This is the intent of Washington, Occupied Tel Aviv, London, and the Gulf-Capitalist-Bloc: to plunder Syria at the expense of its people.
***
Please do consider subscribing to my Substack. Huge thank you to everyone who does support my work xx
Thanks again for your committed research and diligence.