الخط الأمامي✪ 
Damascus _ front line
Reuters reported, citing seven informed sources and internal documents, that in mid-August, the Syrian Central Bank requested private banks to prepare for the issuance of new banknotes with two zeros slashed from the denominations, as part of a plan to rebuild trust in the deteriorating lira.
The new currency is expected to be launched on December 8, 2025, as a symbolic step to break away from the defunct Assad regime, as the current Syrian currency features images of Hafez al-Assad and Bashar al-Assad.
The Syrian lira has lost 99% of its value since 2011, when one US dollar was equivalent to 50 Syrian liras, whereas today it is close to 10,000 liras. However, the sources confirm that the change is only moral and symbolic, without any real economic impact.
To be more precise, since Syrians today, in many commercial transactions, use the weight of the currency instead of counting it—such as “half a kilo of the five-thousand lira notes” or “ten kilograms of the one-thousand lira notes” and the like—nothing will change after the introduction of the new currency except the nominal form. Syrians will still carry the same weight in their bags.
Reuters’ economic advisor, Karam Al-Shar, pointed out that the meaningful action to facilitate the lives and commercial transactions of Syrians would be to introduce a currency with an added zero, not the opposite.
However, it is clear that changing the value of a currency is not achieved merely by removing zeros. It requires real national income to strengthen it through industry and agriculture, based on political and security stability, which is still lacking in Syria.
It is noteworthy that the authority in Damascus has contracted with the Russian state-owned company “Goznak” to print the new currency. This company is under US sanctions for printing Libyan currency illegally, which was closer to a counterfeiting operation without real backing.
This symbolic step taken by the transitional authority in Damascus is part of a series of propaganda measures that do not reflect any tangible benefit for Syrians, especially since over 90% of the Syrian people live below the poverty line.
This raises the question:
Will this new currency be a gateway to sequester the funds looted by elements of the defunct regime through the new system?
And will it later be accompanied by phantom projects through the merchants of the new authority, such as purchasing ATMs and banking infrastructure, which hold only symbolic meaning?
How long will Syrians continue to feed on promises and formal changes, marketed as a break from the defunct regime, while carrying no real break from corruption, favoritism, repression, dictatorship, poverty, and hunger?
The answers to these questions remain with the transitional authority, which acts as if it is an eternal authority.
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