BEIRUT (AP)
-- Iran delivered 30,000 tons of food supplies to Syria on Tuesday to
help the government deal with shortages due to the civil war, state
media said.
As the announcement came that the
massive shipment arrived at a Mediterranean port, state TV also reported
that government forces had made further advances against rebels near
the capital, Damascus.
The aid is part of
Iran's broader support for President Bashar Assad as he prepares to run
for a third presidential term while his troops battle rebels seeking his
overthrow.
Iran has been Assad's major backer
throughout the 3-year-old conflict, lending Damascus military support
through its proxy Hezbollah group and advising the government on
strategy to fight the opposition. Tehran has also been pumping funds
into Syria to save the country's battered economy from collapsing.
Last
May, Iran extended a $3.6 billion credit line to Syria, enabling
Assad's government to buy oil products and help shore up the diving
value of the Syrian pound.
Syria's economy has
been hit hard by the conflict, with two of its main pillars- oil
exports and tourism - all but collapsed. Before the conflict, oil
exports, mostly to Europe, generated up to $8 million per day. In 2010,
the year before the conflict begun, Syria earned $8 billion from
tourism.
U.S. and European Union bans on oil
imports aimed at punishing Assad's government for its brutal crackdown
on dissent are estimated to cost Syria about $400 million a month.
Before
the conflict started in March 2011, Syria produced most of the food
needed to feed its 23 million inhabitants and even exported wheat. Over
the past year, the country has experienced massive shortages because the
fighting has been concentrated in opposition-held, rural areas around
Syria's major cities, including the capital, and along the border with
Lebanon, where most of the agricultural land is located.
Assad's
troops have been for months conducting a punishing offensive around
Damascus, pounding rebels in villages and towns with artillery and
surrounding them with checkpoints, preventing food, crops and medicine
from reaching people inside.
In Rome, the UN
food agency said Syria is facing a drought that will have "a major
impact on the next cereal harvest." With the rainy season ending in
mid-May and the rainfall since September at the level of less than half
the average, millions of lives could be at risk, the WFP said in a
statement Tuesday. The agency is currently feeding 4 million Syrians.
The
number of those in need of food assistance is likely to rise in the
next months as the dry conditions, compounded with the impact of the
civil war, will result in the breakdown of the agricultural sector, the
statement said.
The U.N. agency estimated that
the wheat production in Syria will be at 1.7 to 2 million tons this
year - a record low. Syria's wheat needs were at 5.1 million tons last
year, the WFP said.
According to WFP's
figures, the areas most affected by drought are in Syria's northwest
that account for half of the country's wheat production. In addition to
the lack of rainfall, the provinces of Aleppo, Idlib, Hassakeh as well
as Raqqa and Deir el Zour in the northeast have seen some of the worst
fighting in the past two years.
Also Tuesday,
Syrian state TV said government forces seized after weeks of fierce
fighting a hill with a radar post and several other strategic posts
overlooking Rankous, a village in the sprawling Ghouta suburb east of
Damascus.
Despite relentless violence, Assad
is quietly preparing the ground to hold presidential elections early
this summer to win another 7-year term.
No
date has been set yet for the vote, which must be held between 60 and 90
days before Assad's current 7-year term ends on July 17. Assad has not
publicly said he will run, but in February the parliament approved an
electoral law opening the door - at least in theory - to potential
contenders besides the serving president.
Syrian
Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said Tuesday the elections will go
on as scheduled in all Syrian provinces. Presidential candidates will be
able to submit their applications during the last 10 days of April,
al-Zoubi said in an interview with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV, broadcast
Tuesday.
---
Associated Press writer Zeina Karam contributed to this report.
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