NextFin News - In a move that fundamentally redraws the economic map of the Levant, Saudi Arabia and Syria signed a sweeping suite of multibillion-dollar investment agreements on Saturday, February 7, 2026. The deals, finalized at the People’s Palace in Damascus, were witnessed by Syrian interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Saudi Investment Minister Khalid al-Falih. The centerpiece of this bilateral surge is the establishment of a joint low-cost carrier, "Flynas Syria," and a comprehensive redevelopment of Aleppo International Airport, aimed at restoring the country’s crippled transport infrastructure and reconnecting it to global markets.
According to the Khaleej Times, the aviation initiative is part of a broader Saudi-backed investment fund committing 7.5 billion Saudi riyals (approximately $2 billion) to Syrian infrastructure. The new airline, a joint venture between Saudi budget carrier flynas and the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority, will be majority-owned by the Syrian side (51%) with the remaining 49% held by Saudi interests. Commercial operations are slated to begin by late 2026. Simultaneously, the Aleppo airport project aims to expand the facility’s capacity to handle 12 million passengers annually, transforming the northern city into a regional logistics hub. Beyond aviation, the pact includes the "SilkLink" project—a $1 billion telecommunications initiative led by STC Group to lay thousands of kilometers of fiber-optic cable, effectively positioning Syria as a digital bridge between Asia and Europe.
The timing of these investments is inextricably linked to the seismic political shifts of the past year. Following the ouster of the previous administration in late 2024, U.S. President Trump moved to fully remove remaining U.S. sanctions on Damascus in late 2025. This policy shift, according to The Straits Times, acted as the primary catalyst for the return of institutional capital. U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has publicly applauded the deals, suggesting that the strategic partnership in aviation and telecoms will contribute meaningfully to reconstruction efforts. For Riyadh, the motivation is twofold: securing a stable northern neighbor and ensuring that Saudi corporations—such as ACWA Power, which also signed water desalination agreements on Saturday—are the primary beneficiaries of the Syrian reconstruction boom.
From an analytical perspective, the focus on aviation and telecommunications is a calculated "connectivity-first" strategy. By prioritizing the movement of people and data, the al-Sharaa administration and its Saudi backers are attempting to bypass the slower, more capital-intensive process of heavy industrial reconstruction. The aviation sector, in particular, serves as a high-visibility symbol of normalization. The 51/49 ownership structure of Flynas Syria is a classic joint-venture framework designed to satisfy Syrian sovereign requirements while ensuring Saudi operational expertise and capital protection. This model likely serves as a blueprint for future Gulf-led projects in the Syrian energy and real estate sectors.
However, the scale of these ambitions faces significant headwinds. While the $2 billion aviation fund and the $1 billion SilkLink project are substantial, they represent only a fraction of the estimated $250 billion to $400 billion required for total national reconstruction. Benjamin Feve, a senior research analyst at Karam Shaar advisory, noted to The Straits Times that these deals currently serve more as a "political signal" than an immediate economic game-changer. The success of these projects depends on the continued stability of the interim government and the permanence of the U.S. sanctions relief under U.S. President Trump. Any resurgence of regional volatility could quickly stall the capital flows necessary to move these projects from the "memorandum" stage to operational reality.
Looking forward, the Saudi-Syrian partnership is expected to trigger a "domino effect" among other GCC nations. With Riyadh having already committed over $6 billion in various deals since July 2025, the UAE and Qatar are likely to accelerate their own investment timelines to avoid being sidelined in the competition for Syrian market share. The transformation of Aleppo into a 12-million-passenger hub suggests that the regional economic center of gravity is shifting northward, potentially challenging the traditional dominance of established transit points. If the SilkLink project meets its 18-to-24-month implementation window, Syria could emerge by 2028 not just as a recovered state, but as a vital node in the global digital economy, fundamentally altered by Saudi capital and the new geopolitical alignment in Washington.
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