Interfax: Russia will continue shipping wheat as humanitarian aid to Syria

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia supplied 100,000 tonnes of wheat to Syria as humanitarian aid since the start of 2020 and plans to ship more, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, Reuters reports.

Syria’s economy has been strained by a complex, multi-sided conflict now in its 10th year, as well as a financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon.

Russia, one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, has been supporting Syrian President Bashar al Assad but its official customs data does not show any significant supplies of wheat to Syria.

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“In terms of goals of rebuilding the Syrian economy, we have already had very significant decisions taken in recent weeks that will significantly enhance Syria’s ability to organise (this) work in a systematic manner,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Interfax.

He added that concrete actions on the issue were being currently discussed, but did not provide any further details.

Syria needs to import between 180,000 tonnes and 200,000 tonnes of wheat a month, its economy minister said in October, blaming a shortfall on “militias” preventing farmers from selling their wheat to the state.