In Syria's northeastern province of Latakia, workers roll the country's first locally made cigars, a new product being launched despite the devastating civil conflict now in its fifth year. The project is three years in the making, with workers learning to hand-roll cigars "in accordance with international standards". "We decided to develop a new product without foreign expertise with the hope of supporting the economy," Shadi Mualla, the plant manager told AFP, in a criticism of what he believed was "the economic war waged against Syria" by the West.
Despite the conflict in Syria, workers at the state-run General Tobacco Company have launched the country's first locally made cigars, in an effort to create much-needed jobs and increase revenue, AFP reports.
Operating from Syria's northeastern province of Latakia, the initiative will create approximately 1,000 new jobs, according to the company's director general, Salman al-Abbas. "The company will start selling the products on the local market very soon and then begin trying to export to friendly countries," says Abbas.
Now entering its fifth year, Syria's brutal civil war has ravaged the economy and has claimed over 215,000 lives. Smarting from European Union sanctions since 2012, the General Tobacco company was formerly one of the country's most successful state-run enterprises. The company's assets were frozen after accusations that it helped finance the government's bloody crackdown against unrest.
The tobacco for the cigars is grown by the factory in coastal Latakia, which is situated in a stronghold of the government of President Bashar Assad. Largely insulated from the conflict, the region is the birthplace of Assad's father, and is also the heartland for the Alawite minority sect to which the president belongs.
