None of the projects promised by the Government in Aleppo are being implemented as Syria's second largest city remains largely controlled by militias, Al-Modon reports.
The Syrian cabinet held its weekly session on Sunday in the city of Aleppo headed by Prime Minister Imad Khamis and 30 ministers. The regime’s government made a large number of promises to the residents of Aleppo to develop the city’s commercial, residential and tourist center, and to fight crime and to provide services. The ministers carried out tours in the city and the Aleppo countryside. However, residents ridiculed the government promises and accused them of lying and trickery and of being unable to actually do anything in light of the total control of regime militias and security branches, according to Al-Modon’s correspondent Khalid al-Khateeb.
Imad Khamis and members of his government arrived at the Aleppo International Airport on Friday/Saturday night. They were received by the Aleppo governor, Hussein Diyab, and the secretary of the Baath Party branch, Fadel al-Najjar. This was the first time in which loyalist militias supported by Iran allowed the airport to be used by civilian authorities after they turned it, since the start of 2013, into a military barracks and a command quarters for their operations led by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Khamis visited Aleppo at the head of a delegation of 15 ministers in January 2017, a short time after the regime’s militias had taken control of the eastern districts and the armed opposition had left the area in the end of 2016. Khamis’s second visit was accompanied by 16 ministers at the start of 2018.
Residents ridiculed the government’s visit and the visits planned by ministers in advance, as the city council was put on alert, the streets were cleaned and pictures of Bashar al-Assad and flags were hung in squares and streets which would be used by the ministers. The electricity supply was not cut on Saturday for 24 straight hours for the first time in years.