What If Saudi Arabia Had Not Backed Syria’s Return?

Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in December 2024, and the assumption of leadership by President Ahmed al-Sharaa during the transitional phase, Syria has faced an existential question no less important than the questions of politics and security: how can a country emerging from a long war, devastated infrastructure, an isolated economy, and suffocating sanctions return to the regional and international economic system?

At that moment, the Saudi role, led by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, emerged not as a passing political gesture, but as a strategic lever that placed Syria back on the world’s table. Riyadh approached the Syrian file with a different mindset: not merely managing a crisis, but opening a path toward stability and development, and transforming the political turning point in Damascus into an economic opportunity that could be built upon.

As a starting point to understand the scale of the transformation that took place in less than a year and a half, Saudi support was not only financial, nor was it limited to diplomatic positions. It was a combination of political legitimacy, economic confidence, the opening of international doors, the mobilization of the private sector, and the reintroduction of Syria to the world as a country whose future could once again be invested in.

From Riyadh, the Isolation Began to Break

The most important scene in Syria’s new economic story came from Riyadh, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced in May 2025, while in the Saudi capital, the move toward lifting sanctions imposed on Syria.

This was not merely a political statement made at a passing conference. It was a moment watched by the world. Through it, investors, banks, and international institutions understood that the Syrian file was moving from the category of isolation to the category of economic testing. More importantly, the announcement came within a clear Saudi context, and with the request and push of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, reflecting Riyadh’s weight in reshaping the international path toward the new Syria.

After that, the political signal turned into practical steps. In June 2025, a U.S. executive order was issued to end the comprehensive sanctions program on Syria.

Saudi support did not stop at the political level. In May 2025, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, together with the State of Qatar, contributed to settling Syria’s arrears to the World Bank, amounting to around $15.5 million.

The figure may appear limited when compared with the scale of Syria’s destruction, but its symbolism and impact were significant. This payment restored Syria’s eligibility to benefit from World Bank programs and projects after years of suspension. In economics, some steps are not measured by their direct financial value, but by the doors they open.

This step effectively reconnected Syria with one of the world’s most important development institutions. It also sent a message that the new Syria should not be left alone to face an exhausted economy, and that its return to the international financial system required those willing to pave the way and push toward rebuilding confidence.

The Future Investment Initiative: Syria on the World Stage

After the scene of sanctions being lifted from Riyadh, another scene of no less importance followed: the participation of President Ahmed al-Sharaa in the ninth edition of the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh in 2025.

His participation was, in itself, a political and economic message. The Syrian president did not appear on a limited regional platform, but on one of the most important global investment platforms, attended by leaders, decision-makers, corporate executives, funds, and financial institutions. From Riyadh, Syria was no longer addressing donors alone; it had begun addressing investors.

At that forum, al-Sharaa presented a new economic narrative for Syria: a state that does not want to remain a permanent burden on aid, but seeks to rebuild itself through investment, partnerships, and major projects. He also noted that Syria had attracted around $28 billion in investments within a few months, a figure that reflects the scale of initial interest, while also revealing a larger challenge: how can pledges, agreements, and memoranda of understanding be converted into projects on the ground?

Here, Riyadh’s role appears once again. The Kingdom did not only give Syria a political platform; it gave it a global economic platform. That platform meant Syria was no longer merely a reconstruction file, but an investment opportunity presented to the world from the Saudi capital.

From Political Opening to Practical Projects

If the lifting of sanctions opened the door, the Saudi-Syrian Investment Forum in Damascus moved the relationship into a more practical phase.

In July 2025, Damascus hosted the Saudi-Syrian Investment Forum, with broad official and economic participation. The forum resulted in the signing of 47 agreements and memoranda of understanding worth nearly SAR 24 billion, or around $6.4 billion. These agreements covered multiple sectors, from real estate, infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications to industry, services, and technology.

These figures do not reflect financial value alone. They reflect a transformation in the way Syria is viewed. After years in which the country was associated in the global mind with war, sanctions, and displacement, Syria began to appear as a market for reconstruction, a potential destination for capital, and a space for regional economic partnerships.

More importantly, this transformation was not isolated from the broader Saudi direction. The establishment of the Saudi-Syrian Business Council came within this path, serving as an institutional platform linking the Saudi private sector with Syrian opportunities, and turning the relationship from visits and statements into mechanisms, plans, and targeted sectors.

In this context, the remarks of Mr. Mohammad Abdullah Abunayyan, Chairman of the Saudi-Syrian Business Council, stood out as among the clearest economic messages of that phase.

Abunayyan emphasized that the establishment of the council came at an important time, as Syria prepares for a new phase that requires joint efforts to support reconstruction, stability, and prosperity. He also noted that the council had begun working on a plan for the years 2025–2030, aimed at strengthening sustainable economic cooperation, highlighting opportunities, supporting strategic partnerships, and facilitating trade and logistics procedures for Saudi companies.

This is not the language of protocol compliments. It is the language of a private sector that sees Syria as a long-term opportunity, while also understanding that investment succeeds only through institutions, plans, legislation, capital protection, and the ability to execute.

What is notable in Abunayyan’s remarks is that the focus was not on a single sector, but on priority sectors such as infrastructure, real estate development, industry, tourism, food security, and export development. These are precisely the areas Syria needs if it is to move from an economy of survival to an economy of growth.

From Pledges to Real Investment

By the beginning of 2026, the Saudi-Syrian economic path had taken a more advanced form. Saudi Arabia announced a new investment package in Syria covering energy, aviation, real estate, and telecommunications, including a SAR 7.5 billion fund, equivalent to around $2 billion, to develop two airports in the city of Aleppo in multiple phases.

The package also included an agreement in the aviation sector to establish “Flynas Syria,” investments in telecommunications infrastructure, including a fiber-optic network extending for thousands of kilometers, as well as understandings in water and energy.

These steps matter because they move the relationship from the phase of intentions to the phase of projects. Syria does not need supportive statements alone. It needs airports, energy, water, telecommunications, housing, roads, and supply chains. If reconstruction requires hundreds of billions, then the logical starting point is in the sectors that restart the economy, reconnect cities and markets, and create jobs.

According to World Bank estimates, the cost of Syria’s reconstruction stands at around $216 billion after nearly fourteen years of conflict. This figure alone reveals the size of the gap between the country’s needs and its domestic capacity.

Syria cannot rebuild itself with its own resources alone. Here lies the importance of the Saudi role. The Kingdom is not only offering Syria a financial figure; it is offering something deeper: a gateway to the world, a regional certificate of confidence, and the ability to bring together politics and economics, the state and the private sector, investment and development.

Mission: Impossible

What If Saudi Support Had Been Absent?

Had Saudi support been absent, the Syrian scene would have looked closer to an impossible mission.

At major turning points, it is not enough for regimes to fall or governments to change. What matters is who captures the moment, who turns it into a path, and who gives the world a reason to trust.

Saudi Arabia did that. From Riyadh came the scene that broke isolation. From Riyadh, al-Sharaa appeared on the global investment stage. From Damascus, and through a Saudi partnership, agreements worth billions of riyals were signed. Through the Saudi-Syrian Business Council, the features of a long-term institutional partnership began to take shape.

What happened in Syria after Assad cannot be read economically in isolation from the Saudi role. The Kingdom is the most prominent regional actor in moving Syria from isolation to openness, from waiting for aid to attracting investment, and from the language of crisis to the language of opportunity.

For this reason, the real question today is: how can Syria transform this historic Saudi support into a genuine economic recovery story that reflects on the lives of Syrians, restores part of the region’s balance, and proves that investing in stability is the shortest path to the future?