Syria faces depleted reserves amid crisis

Syrian caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad al-Bashir said that Syria has very low foreign currency reserves.

During the interview, al-Bashir also spoke about the country's need for basic infrastructures and services, saying it needs urgent humanitarian aid for political and economic support.

Current and former Syrian officials have said that the dollar reserves have been nearly depleted because Bashar al-Assad's government increasingly used them to fund food, fuel and its war effort.

The central bank's foreign exchange reserves amount to just around $200 million in cash, one of the sources said, while another said the US dollar reserves were in the hundreds of millions.

Meanwhile a statement purporting to be the first by Syria's ousted President Bashar al-Assad said his departure from Syria was neither planned nor occurred during the final hours of the battles.

The written statement, published on the Syrian presidency's Telegram channel - was posted from Moscow, where Assad has been granted asylum.

It said he wanted to address ''distortions'' given during a ''critical juncture in the nation's history.''

And that at no point did he consider stepping down, seeking refuge or did he receive a proposal from an individual party.

Also Israeli troops operated in the UN-monitored buffer zone between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Israel agreed to double its population on the occupied Golan Heights while saying threats from Syria remained despite the moderate tone of rebel leaders who ousted President Bashar al-Assad a week ago.

Israel has carried out extensive military moves to counter such threats.

Syria's de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, said that Israel was using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he was not interested in engaging in new conflicts as the country focuses on rebuilding.

Sharaa - better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani - leads the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that swept Assad from power, ending the family's five-decade iron-fisted rule.