A million dollars profit for al Julani from his new project in Idlib
In continuation of the financial policy of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (formerly al Nusra front), which depends mainly on collecting royalties and fees, which it imposes on those who live in its areas of control in northwestern Syria, a new step has begun by imposing sums of money on farmers who intend to irrigate agricultural lands with water, coming from the spring of Ain Zarqa, west of Idlib.
However, what happened was not in the interest of HTS, as thousands of farmers refused to pay the imposed royalties, so that HTS worked to prevent the pumping of water towards agricultural lands.
Local activists revealed that, HTS stopped pumping water from Ain al Zarqa spring to Sahel al Roj area, after it worked to operate it for a whole week, after stopping it for more than 5 years.
The reason why HTS stopped pumping water is the farmers’ refusal to pay the fees, which the so-called Salvation Government imposed on them, in exchange for allowing them to irrigate their agricultural lands from the water lines connecting to the Sahel al Rouj area, west of Idlib.
The Directorate of Water Resources in the Salvation Government imposed fees on farmers wishing to irrigate their agricultural lands from water canals, at the beginning of this week, after the start of pumping water from the spring of Ain al Zarqa.
The water resources informed the farmers through the local councils of the villages scattered in the area, and set the value of those fees at 10 US dollars per month on each dunum of land that will benefit from the water.
More than 600 farmers refused to pay the fees imposed by the authority, so that the Water Directorate stopped pumping water to farmers.
A local source, who declined to be identified for security reasons, added that “the profits of HTS from pumping water may exceed 300 thousand dollars per month, and that the number of pumping times will be for a period of four months only, meaning that there will be one million and 200 thousand dollars that will go to Abu Mohammad al Julani’s treasury during the summer period.
The Sahel al Roj area in Idlib is also considered one of the most important areas in which the preservation of agriculture depends, which made the eyes of HTS focus on it recently, earlier this year.
Hay’at Tahrir al Sham controls the entire Idlib governorate and parts of the western countryside of Aleppo and Hama, and through its strict security grip, it was able to impose legislation and decisions on the residents of those areas, through its political and civil arm known as the “Salvation Government”.
