Five months after its liberation from the police state of Bashar al-Assad, Syria sometimes looks like a country in civil war. Sectarian clashes have turned into street battles with rockets and mortars.

But the country must also modernise monetary policy, rewire banking and reconnect with global markets, argues Abdulkader Husrieh

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had tea with a former jihadist who until recently had a $10 million US bounty on his head.

Syria's economic turmoil worsened in 2019 when neighbouring Lebanon, with which it has extensive economic and financial ties, also descended into crisis. Damascus then introduced a plethora of exchange rates for different transactions to safeguard scarce hard currency.

The foreign ministers of Turkey, the United States and Syria will meet in southern Turkey on Thursday to discuss details of U.S. President Donald Trump's pledge to lift sanctions on Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday.