Iran grants Syria oil credit to promote economic takeover

"An agreement was signed (on Monday) in Tehran… by the Iranian and Syrian central banks, granting Syria a credit line worth $3.6 billion for oil," the Syrian state news agency reported. Damascus will repay Tehran by means of Iranian investments “of various kinds” in Syria, said SANA without elaborating. DEBKAfile: Iran is moving step by step to control the Syrian economy and advance its scheme for drawing Syria, Iraq and an eventually Hizballah-dominated Lebanon into a Shiite economic bloc.