Iran Offers Aid To Syria's Aleppo After Large Quake In Turkey
Iran’s Consul General in Syria’s city of Aleppo pledged full support to the people in the wake of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Turkey, north of the Syrian border.
Iran’s Consul General in Syria’s city of Aleppo pledged full support to the people in the wake of a magnitude 7.8 earthquake in Turkey, north of the Syrian border.
Early reports indicate hundreds of people have died in Turkey and in Syria and the number of casualties is increasing as search and rescue crews search destroyed buildings.
Salman Navvab Nouri is quoted by the official IRNA news website as saying “The Islamic Republic of Iran will be beside the people of Aleppo as it was in the past and all will deploy all its capacities to assist the victims…”
Israel has offered assistance to Turkey that has declared a high-level alert, requesting international assistance.
The government in Tehran has not yet issued a statement offering aid, but it is expected that Iran will focus any assistance on Syria, its regional ally.
Tehran might face a difficult political question if it commits large resources to Syria, since the victims of an earthquake in northwest Iran last week are still in a desperate situation, complaining of lack of shelter and food amid winter cold.
Most Iranians are also critical of the Islamic government's decade-old military intervention in Syria and the expenditure of tens of billion of dollars in the war.
The offer by the Iranian diplomat to help Aleppo comes as the city was mostly destroyed in 2015-2016 when Russia and Iran used overwhelming and indiscriminate bombardment to force Syrian rebels out of the area. Thousands of civilians died in the battle.
According to the latest report released by the Research Center of Iran Chamber of Commerce in early-February, growing unemployment as well as internet shutdowns or restrictions also contributed to the unprecedented crisis in the production sector.
The report is based on the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), which is a measure of the prevailing direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors. The purpose of the index is to summarize whether market conditions, as viewed by purchasing managers, are expanding, staying the same, or contracting. It is supposed to provide information and useful insight about current and future business conditions to the decision makers, analysts, and investors. The PMI is derived from a monthly survey of supply chain managers across many industries, covering both upstream and downstream activities.
The latest report on this indicator of overall economic activity proves that the country’s production sector has been contracting to an alarming level, with the index dropping to below 40, while a number less than 50 means economic contraction.
The report added that a survey of economic enterprises indicates that this record-breaking fall in the entire economy is caused by factors such as a rise in production costs due to inflation and instability in the exchange rates, which had already put pressure on economic enterprises. However, the new issue that has been added to the equation is the challenge to supply energy to producers.
Iran is facing a serious natural gas shortage in winter months as output at its gas fields gradually declines due to lack of investments and Western technology. To keep homes warm, the government reduces gas supplies to steel makers, refineries and a host of medium-sized enterprises.
Another index that factored in the report pertained to “the extent of business activities,” indicating that in all three main sectors of the economy, i.e. industry, services and agriculture, activity has dramatically decreased.
The index of "inventory of raw materials or purchased supplies" in the previous Iranian month (which ended on January 20) saw the sharpest decrease rate in the past 27 months. The significant devaluation of the rial and the resulting price inflation have disturbed the supply chains for producers who cannot secure their required raw materials.
Some of the other indices that contributed to a drop in PMI are growing unemployment, fewer customer orders, and less exports of goods and services, as well as sales in general.
Head of the Research Center of Iran Chamber of Commerce Mohammad Ghasemi told Donya-e-Eqtesad daily that the new report shows the Islamic Republic “has been removed from the map of international trade,” warning that “apart from its consequences for our economic growth, this has risks for our national security."
"The most painful result of these studies...is that the 'existence and absence of Iran's economy' does not have much effect on the international economy," he added, noting that it becomes very easy for the international community to inflict damage on the country’s economy. This means that sanctions and embargoes on Iran are irrelevant to the global supply chain and economy.
Emphasizing that "Foreign trade is one of the instruments of continuous economic growth," Ghasemi said that no country has ever prospered since the end of World War II without benefitting from the international trade.
