Iran to invest $10 bn in Syria

PRESS TV: Tehran has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Damascus to invest 10 billion US dollars in Syria in the next five years.
IRNA reported that Iran's acting minister of Mines and Industries, Ali-Akbar Mehrabian, said on Thursday that the Memorandum of Understanding has been approved by Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad. Mehrabian who returned from Damascus on Thursday, visited Syria at the invitation of his Syrian counterpart, Fuad Isa Juni. During his two-day stay in Damascus, Mehrabian met with Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Utri and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to whom he submitted a message from President Ahmadinejad. The acting minister also visited industrial projects undertaken by Iranian experts in Syria, including automobile and cement production plants. Mehrabian stated that Iran has 16 projects in Syria with a total value of over one billion US dollars adding, "The Iranian, and Syrian governments are determined to accomplish their joint projects in collaboration with the private sector."