Syria has "no motive" to bring a halt to its $45.6 billion Captagon drugs trade, experts warn, as it uses the funds as a "lifeline" to bolster its struggling economy.
The UK estimates the global trade in Captagon is worth about $57 billion, with 80 per cent of the world’s supply produced in Syria as a source of revenue for President Bashar Al Assad's regime.
In a webinar hosted by think tank Chatham House looking at how the Israel-Gaza conflict is effecting regional instability in Syria, experts revealed the trade in Captagon shows no sign of abating.
Haid Haid, Consulting Fellow for the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House, said Mr Al Assad has 'no willingness' to stop the Captagon trade.
He said there are levels of involvement from militia, the military and security agencies in the flow of Captagon from Syria to Jordon.
"Because of that the regime has been able to gain a lot of money," he said.
"The regime has no motive to stop it."
The amphetamine-based drug is consumed in pill form and induces periods of heightened concentration as well as feelings of confidence and euphoria.
Mr Haid said a "lack" of financial incentive for Syria from other regimes gives it no reason to crackdown on it.
Both the UK and US have hit Syria with western sanctions as a result.
"Trade in the drug is a financial lifeline for the Al Assad regime – it is worth approximately three times the combined trade of the Mexican cartels," the UK Foreign Office has said.
"The production and trafficking of Captagon enriches Al Assad’s inner circle, militias and warlords, at the expense of the Syrian people who continue to face crippling poverty and repression at the hands of the regime."
Joseph Bahout, Director at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, said Al Assad's regime is "ready to trade anything" for a reward at the moment due to its struggling economy.
He said Syria's reluctance to get involved in the Israel-Gaza war is in part due to its struggling economy and a desire to build bridges.
"Al Assad has distanced himself from regional escalation. I think the main position was that the regime wants to stay out of it for different reasons," he said.
"Firstly the rift and conflict which started with Hamas in 2012 when Hamas sided with the uprising and other aspects relating to domestic situation in Syria, its economy is suffering and Al Assad's military is ill-equipped and spread thinly throughout Syria and we have regional countries advising Al Assad to stay out."
With its economy suffering, drugs gangs are using Jordan as the main conduit for smuggling drugs from southern Syria into the Arabian Peninsula, a trade Jordanian officials have described as a threat to the kingdom's national security.
Last year police in Jordan destroyed 12.5 million Captagon pills captured in raids.
The Jordanian military has fortified the border with Syria with barriers, patrols and monitoring equipment, with the support of the United States and other western allies, to try to stop the smuggling.
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Emergency phone numbers in the UAE
Estijaba – 8001717 – number to call to request coronavirus testing
Ministry of Health and Prevention – 80011111
Dubai Health Authority – 800342 – The number to book a free video or voice consultation with a doctor or connect to a local health centre
Emirates airline – 600555555
Etihad Airways – 600555666
Ambulance – 998
Knowledge and Human Development Authority – 8005432 ext. 4 for Covid-19 queries
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
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