In the Economist, here
Sarkozy's prize
"If Syria is to be reclassified as a force for stability in the Middle East, France clearly wants to derive some credit. The benefits for Mr Sarkozy include both securing a potentially valuable new recruit to his Mediterranean union project and the prospect of major commercial deals—a French consultant is working on engineering designs for the Damascus metro, a project that would appear to be tailor-made for French contractors, and the Toulouse-based Airbus Industrie could be in line for a contract to re-equip Syria's national airline, whose fleet is now down to just six serviceable aircraft, according to the transport minister, Yarob Badr.
Economic considerations are likely to have played an important part in Syria's recent push for international respectability—which has included embarking on peace talks with Israel and inviting the International Atomic Energy Agency (somewhat belatedly) to visit Syria ... The Syrian economy performed relatively well in 2005 and 2006 thanks to the beneficial effects of the Gulf boom, good harvests and capital inflows from Iraqi refugees..."
1 comment:
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