- كلما ساءت أزمة العراق، ازدادت أرباح سوريا.
- المفارقة الاستراتيجية هي أن إيران أغلقت مضيق هرمز لمعاقبة أعدائها.
النتيجة، أموال النفط العراقي تتدفق الآن إلى حكومة دمشق والتي تصفها طهران بأنها خصم بينما العراق، الشريك العربي الأقرب لإيران، يرقد على أجهزة الإنعاش.
- نقاط الاختناق لا تختار ضحاياها، الجغرافيا هي من تفعل.
The strangest oil trade of 2026 isn't happening at sea.
It's 700 tanker trucks a day crossing the Iraq–Syria desert.
The biggest winner is a government that barely produces oil at all.
Hormuz shut → Iraq lost 90% of export revenue.
Baghdad will take ANY outlet.
So 2 land corridors opened: al-Waleed in Anbar (31 March) and Rabia/Yarubiyah (20 April) the latter sealed since 2013.
Destination: Baniyas, Syria's Mediterranean port. Then by sea to Europe.
The numbers are medieval and massive at once:
500–700 trucks/day, 30 tonnes each.
Baniyas unloading capacity up 30%, 120k bpd flowing. Baseline 150k bpd, target 350k.
Moving just 50k bpd of crude takes 1,000 trucks running nonstop, this is a pipeline made of wheels.
💰The economics
Here's the desperation premium: SOMO is paying $20–22 per barrel to move fuel oil by land.
By sea it costs cents.
Iraq signed for 650k tonnes/month anyway because the alternative isn't a cheaper route.... It's zero.
Damascus collects on every barrel: transit fees, storage, port charges, plus cheap Iraqi fuel.
At $2–3/bbl that's $8–13M/month, rising to $21–30M at full flow.
For al-Sharaa's empty treasury, possibly his most reliable hard-currency stream.
The worse Iraq's crisis gets, the more Syria earns.
The structural irony is that Iran shut Hormuz to punish its enemies.
Result, Iraqi oil money now flows to a Damascus government Tehran calls an adversary while Iraq, Iran's closest Arab partner, sits on life support.
Chokepoints don't choose their victims, Geography does.