Field report Will the electricity of the south be an Iranian target?
Ahrar Houran Gathering - Rashid Hourani
Iranian attempts to control and penetrate Syria are not limited to the military and security aspect, even with regard to the manufacture and smuggling of drugs, which have become a fait accompli, especially in southern Syria, which constitutes a tremendous economic return. Directly, and one of the important sectors that Iran is gradually controlling is electricity.
The reality of electricity in Daraa
Daraa, like the rest of the Syrian governorates, suffers from a large rationing of the electric current, as the rationing hours sometimes reach 12 hours, compared to two hours of connection, as a result of the malfunctions suffered by the main substations on the one hand, and the networks that were subjected to extensive destruction and looting during past years.
The Electricity Corporation in Daraa also suffers from a significant shortage of equipment and funding, despite its attempts to illuminate the governorate and carry out maintenance operations. However, according to sources for the “Ahrar Houran Gathering,” the main stations suffer from malfunctions, especially in the spare parts that the corporation is working on maintaining. Without being able to replace it, due to US sanctions, as regime officials constantly say.
In recent years, the Syrian Ministry of Electricity has signed agreements with Iranian companies to carry out maintenance of the main power stations in Syria, without disclosing all of these agreements, which Damascus insists on considering them as support agreements for the Syrians, while observers see that Iran does not provide anything for free. Iran to control the Syrian energy sector in general.
During the past two years, Iranian companies have already begun to maintain the main power stations in Syria, as one of these companies recently completed the maintenance of the thermal power station in Aleppo.
Aleppo is the beginning?
At the time when the head of the regime, Bashar al-Assad, announced, during his visit to Aleppo on Eid, that the Ministry of Electricity was able to restart the thermal power station in the city with “Syrian” efforts and hands, Iran had preceded him at the end of last month by announcing the station’s maintenance.
According to press reports, the Iranian Mbna Company announced, at the end of last June, that it had completed the rehabilitation of the fifth group of the thermal power plant in Aleppo, through the page of the “Iranian Cultural Chancellery” in Syria on the Facebook platform.
The “Iranian Chancellery” indicated that the “Mabna” company managed to repair the station, explaining that the Aleppo Thermal Station is a large and important lever in the Syrian electricity network, as it produced 1,100 megawatts before the war, meaning that it will make a change in the issue of electricity if it returns to its full capacity. Productivity.
Reports indicate that, last summer, Iran signed agreements with the regime’s government, in order to invest in the maintenance of the “Mahradah” power plant in exchange for phosphates, as the regime’s government announced at that time that there was negotiation with an Iranian company to rehabilitate the power sets of the Mohradah plant on the basis of bartering. with phosphates.
In April 2021, the Minister of Electricity, Ghassan Al-Zamil, announced a contract with Iran worth 124 million euros, to rehabilitate a number of electrical stations.
According to several reports, which the "Ahrar Houran Gathering" has seen, Iran has signed multiple contracts with the Syrian regime that enable it to control most of the electricity and energy sector in Syria.
Daraa and Deir Ali station
Deir Ali station, near the city of al-Kiswah, south of Damascus, is considered the main station for feeding the southern region with electricity. The electricity supply agreement was implemented between Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, which provides for the supply of electricity to Lebanon through its passage from the Deir Ali station.
According to local sources, the Deir Ali station needs maintenance operations, amid the inability of the Ministry of Electricity to implement them, and information indicates that Iranian companies are the most fortunate in maintenance operations.
Also in Daraa, there are 9 main power stations for conversion, which are “Al-Basel, Busra Al-Sham, Al-Harak, Al-Sheikh Miskin, Nawa, Al-Sanamayn, Jassem, Khirbet Ghazala, Al-Ajami.” These stations suffer from a shortage of spare parts that the institution lacks in Daraa. It makes it a target for Iranian electricity companies as well.
According to information obtained by the Houran Ahrar Gathering, the electricity agreements between Syria and Iran, and Iranian companies carrying out maintenance and supplying spare parts and transformers to Syria, are not new, as the Ministry of Electricity, about two years before the outbreak of the revolution, sent a group of Syrian engineers in the ministry in A mission to Iran to train on working with Iranian transformers and power stations.
Read also.. Daraa: A protest stand against the Iranian presence
Specialists believe that Iran is currently the only one capable of working in the electricity sector in the south, and throughout Syria, due to the inability of other foreign companies to enter this line due to Caesar's sanctions, which punish all companies that deal with the Assad regime.
It is worth noting that Iran’s ambitions have spread to all vital joints in Syria. In addition to electricity, Iran has signed projects with the regime’s government on alternative energy projects, factories for the manufacture of sponge iron, iron rods, and others.
