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Will Syria's Dwindling Reserves Bring Down the Regime?
(TIME) Vivienne Walt - Economists say President Bashar Assad's regime has effectively gone broke, and is running out of ways to raise revenues and keep most of its soldiers properly fed and paid. Samir Seifan, a prominent Syrian economist who fled last year, said, "If the government cannot finance the army, they [soldiers] will simply go away." That tipping point, in which the government faces all-out financial collapse, seems to be drawing near - between three to six months from now, according to Seifan and others. Already, Assad has abandoned about 40% of the country to rebel forces. The government's official foreign reserves have dwindled from about $20 billion in early 2011 to between $2 and $4 billion now. The regime has been operating for months on outside help from Iran and Russia. In recent months Russia flew eight plane-loads of Syrian banknotes, printed in Russia, to Damascus, in a kind of rescue package.