Syria is in turmoil. 🇸🇾 For weeks, government and activist propaganda portrayed the scenes of convoys of Iraqi trucks loaded with oil heading toward Baniyas as an unprecedented milestone in Syria’s economic recovery. However, what the propagandists failed to mention is that Baniyas is not the final destination for the oil; rather, it is rerouted abroad, and the profits from this go to new economic actors sympathetic to or affiliated with the Syrian Transitional Government—not to the population. Compounding the energy crisis caused by the regional conflict with Iran, Damascus decreed a 40% increase in the price of oil.