Syria is set to open an tender this month for a telecommunications license that could bring in more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, aiding President Ahmed al-Sharaa ’s aim to attract foreign investors following the removal of US sanctions. The license had belonged to Africa’s largest wireless carrier, MTN Group Ltd. , which walked away from its Syrian operations in 2...
Syria is set to open an tender this month for a telecommunications license that could bring in more than $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, aiding President Ahmed al-Sharaa ’s aim to attract foreign investors following the removal of US sanctions. The license had belonged to Africa’s largest wireless carrier, MTN Group Ltd. , which walked away from its Syrian operations in 2021 and wrote down its investment in the country. The plans have been delayed by the US war with Iran and protracted legal negotiations with MTN, the people said. The tender is set to open this month and will run until June 15, with a new operator taking 75% of the local business and the Syrian sovereign fund the other 25%, the people said. MTN reached an agreement to move ahead with the license in a meeting with the Syrian Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdulsalam Haykal on the sidelines of the MWC mobile industry conference this week, a spokesperson for the company said. The carrier that takes on the license will agree to pay at least $500 million for use of the airwaves and must agree to invest another $500 million to build out infrastructure in Syria, the people said. The investment requirements haven’t been finalized, said the people. The tender is set to be one of the biggest investments in Syria since longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad fell in 2024. Al-Sharaa’s government is trying to rebuild the country after nearly 14 years of civil war. Read more: MTN’s Plan to Exit Iran Investment Stymied by US Sanctions News on the potential spectrum sale was first reported by the FT. Saudi firms recently agreed that they would assist Syria in building out the SilkLink project, which includes 4,500 kilometers (2,796 miles) of land-based fiber-optic cables that would connect to neighboring countries including Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Read more: Saudi Firms Agree to Rebuild Syrian Aviation and Mobile Networks MTN has been following a strategy to exit...
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul inched closer to forming a new government after the country’s election commission certified results of the Feb. 8 vote, confirming his ruling party’s decisive win over a poll-favorite progressive rival. Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party won 191 seats to emerge as the single-largest party in the 500-member House of Representatives, the first electoral win for a cons...
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul inched closer to forming a new government after the country’s election commission certified results of the Feb. 8 vote, confirming his ruling party’s decisive win over a poll-favorite progressive rival. Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party won 191 seats to emerge as the single-largest party in the 500-member House of Representatives, the first electoral win for a conservative party in decades. Its chief opponent, the pro-democracy People’s Party, came a distant second with 120 seats. The official results announced on Wednesday reflect nearly the full makeup of the lower house, after a preliminary tally on the night of the election only captured votes counted at 94% of polling stations. One constituency seat, which Bhumjaithai won according to preliminary results, remains to be certified. The Pheu Thai Party, backed by the Shinawatra family, came third with 74 seats, the weakest showing by any party aligned with the clan that dominated elections for nearly two decades. The addition of Pheu Thai as a key partner of the new Bhumjaithai-led coalition has helped Anutin secure a stable majority and pushed former ally Klatham, with 58 seats, to the sidelines. The results certification, almost a month after the vote, now sets off a 15-day countdown for the first meeting of the newly elected lower house to pick a new House Speaker. That person will then call another meeting for lawmakers to formally pick a new prime minister, likely by the end of March. Anutin is expected to receive the support of about 290 lawmakers to stay in power, after recruiting 13 other small parties to join his new coalition. Read More: What Anutin’s Election Win Means for Thailand: QuickTake Bhumjaithai notched a resounding win on a campaign that emphasized national security in the wake of border clashes with Cambodia. It also pushed economic stimulus and short-term measures to support growth, rather than the more fundamental bureaucratic reforms touted by the People’s ...
James Murray says PM has approached Middle East crisis with a ‘cool head’ amid repeated criticism of UK’s position from US president The government has imposed an emergency brake on visas for the first time on nationals from four countries, as Shabana Mahmood accused them of exploiting Britain’s generosity to claim asylum. Study visas for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan hav...
James Murray says PM has approached Middle East crisis with a ‘cool head’ amid repeated criticism of UK’s position from US president The government has imposed an emergency brake on visas for the first time on nationals from four countries, as Shabana Mahmood accused them of exploiting Britain’s generosity to claim asylum. Study visas for nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar and Sudan have been halted, in addition to work visas for Afghans. No, look, president Trump has expressed his disagreement with the decision that we took about joining those initial strikes on Iran over the weekend. But I think what’s really important when we think about that decision is to recognise that the prime minister took the decision he did in the national interest, you know, and he’s approached this with a cool head, with a real clarity of purpose, with a real focus and a determination to do the right thing for the British people. Well, I think, you know, the president has expressed himself using his words, but what’s important for me is that the prime minister is taking the right decisions for the UK, and, of course, that the special relationship between the US and the UK continues. You know, we work together with the US, day in, day out. A Royal Navy destroyer is expected in Cyprus next week after Keir Starmer announced it would be sent to defend the country and British bases there after hostile drones targeted RAF Akrotiri on Monday. The UK government will charter a flight from Oman in the coming days , prioritising vulnerable British nationals in the region amid continued strikes by Iran , the foreign secretary has said. Yvette Cooper said the closure of the airspace and the threat of strikes from Iran, retaliating for US-Israeli attacks , meant the situation was “fast-moving”. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, insisted Labour had “the right economic plan” for a world that had become “yet more uncertain” as she delivered a spring forecast that downgraded growth for this year....