Vehicles came in on customs documents alone, with no technical or emissions inspection, and the traders moving them describe stock written off in the countries it left. That is the parc your parts have to fit and your oil has to protect. Below is how the channel is actually put together, and what we would check before putting a name in front of you.
Two numbers tell you what kind of business this is. New car sales in the first quarter of 2026 came to one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight units, across six brands, with two Korean marques taking close to four fifths between them and the two best-selling models both light commercials. Against that, the ports authority registered more than two hundred and twelve thousand used cars during the window when used imports were permitted, and traders in the north and on the coast described two hundred and fifty to three hundred sales a day.
So the parts you will actually turn are for the used parc, and the used parc arrived in a particular way. An investigation published in December 2025 found vehicles entering on customs documents alone, with no technical or emissions inspection at the border; five traders told its team that cars came in relying solely on those documents, and a customs broker at one port said most of the Korean and Gulf stock was out of service in the countries it left. Cars no longer meeting the later European emissions tiers entered freely.
The regulatory history is the second thing to grasp, because it is the reason nobody can plan here on a two-year view. Imports opened in January 2025 for vehicles within a fifteen-year age band. A ministry decision at the end of June 2025 stopped used imports on market-saturation grounds and allowed only nearly new vehicles, with exemptions for trucks, buses and tractors on different age limits. A further reported ban followed in the autumn. A deadline closed at the end of December 2025, a settlement decision followed, and in May 2026 free-zone investors were permitted to bring used cars in for showroom display only, against a written pledge not to place them into domestic consumption.
Then in September 2026 the ministry opened a registration route for non-exclusive vehicle, machinery and tyre agencies. That is the first formal opening for a foreign principal to be represented here in years, and it is genuinely new — but no decision number was published, there is no timetable, and it does not define exclusivity or address spare parts, warranties or after-sales. Treat it as a door that has opened rather than a process with a manual.
The fleet roughly doubled in a short period, overwhelmingly through used imports routed from Korea, the Gulf and the United States by way of Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Dealers describe the bulk of what sells as cars built between 2007 and 2015, bought under ten thousand dollars. A customs broker interviewed for one investigation said many arrived classed as out of service where they came from; traders in the same piece called used European stock disguised mechanical waste. Imports of used cars were then halted by decree in 2025, which freezes the parc roughly where it is rather than renewing it.
Two consequences follow for anyone selling into it. The parc is not to specification: one workshop operator’s estimate is that around a quarter of imported cars arrive with emissions hardware missing and about as many again have it taken off afterwards, which changes fitment and makes anything emissions-related a difficult line. And the fuel is not what your technical data assumes — locally refined diesel has been measured far denser and much higher in sulphur than regional norms, with the refinery’s own director saying it does not suit modern small diesel engines. Meanwhile the franchised channel is gone and the independent workshops are working flat out.
We will be straight with you about the limits here. We could not verify a single named Syrian automotive parts or lubricants distributor from a source we were prepared to rely on. That is not a gap we intend to fill with a scraped directory listing. What the public record does support is the shape of the trade and the questions that separate a real counterparty from a plausible one, and that is what this page offers.
The channel runs through importer-traders and customs brokers rather than through branded distribution networks. The named individuals who appear in the public record are brokers at the ports and workshop owners inland, not national distributors. Repair capacity is real and improvising: one mechanic with thirteen years in the trade estimated that a quarter of arriving cars had no emissions control device fitted and another quarter had theirs removed, at a cost of a hundred to three hundred dollars a time, with software disabled in workshops.
The chambers of commerce are a genuine sourcing route and a poor verification one, and it is important to hold both ideas at once. The Aleppo and Damascus chambers run company directories that will give you names. But research published in August 2026 found the chambers restructured with members appointed rather than elected, and the head of a chamber affiliated to the governing movement installed as president of the national federation. A chamber reference tells you a company exists. It does not tell you a company is independent of anybody.
Ownership history matters more here than almost anywhere, for a specific legal reason rather than a reputational one. The American revocation carried a savings clause: conduct before the first of July 2025 remains actionable. The beneficial-ownership map has meanwhile been redrawn twice inside two years, with reconciliation arrangements between the new authorities and businessmen from the previous era, and assets absorbed by networks around the new leadership. Who owned the counterparty in 2023 is a live question, not a historical one.
Three of these are preconditions to filing a customs declaration at all, which makes them the fastest way to separate an importer of record from an intermediary clearing under somebody else’s code.
When directories cannot be trusted and names cannot be verified, the questions have to be answerable from documents the counterparty holds. These are.
Check that the registered activity genuinely covers parts or lubricants import, and note when the entity was registered relative to December 2024. A company incorporated the week the border opened is a different proposition from one with a decade of filings.
Registration, tax file and customs registration are all preconditions to filing. A candidate who clears through a third party’s code is not the importer of record, which changes who carries the liability and who you can actually hold to anything.
The September 2026 route is new and lightly documented, which cuts both ways: it is the first formal opening, and nobody has a long track record on it. A candidate who has registered an existing principal under it has done something almost nobody has.
Ask for the stock list by model and model year, then test it against the vehicles that actually arrived — an older used fleet, with light commercials leading the small new-car market. A catalogue weighted to current-model applications is a catalogue for a market that is not here.
This is the technical question that reveals whether they understand their own customers. Then compare the answer with the fuel. At a motor show in mid-2026 a European lubricant brand was promoting service intervals up to fifteen thousand kilometres; that claim and the local fuel are in tension, and a distributor who cannot discuss the tension has not thought about it.
Since May 2026 used vehicles may enter free zones for showroom display only, under a written pledge, with cutting and dismantling permitted inside the zone and complete cars barred from the local market. Stock in a zone may not be stock that can be sold.
Ask whether they have ever requested, or been asked for, a certification about Israeli-origin content or blacklist status. For an American principal the reporting duty is triggered by *receiving* such a request, whether or not it is complied with, and the country remains on the Treasury list that makes this live.
Get a bank name and, if they claim one, a correspondent bank name. The central bank executed what it called its first letter of credit in fourteen years in October 2026, and that was a state purchase. Commercial trade finance has not been shown to work, so somebody’s balance sheet is carrying the first shipment and you should know whose.
A general licence widely relied on through 2025 and much of 2026 was revoked in August 2026, on the basis that it was no longer necessary. Advisories and law firm notes written before that date list it as live. The question to ask is not whether sanctions have eased but whether the instrument your adviser cited is still alive.
Comprehensive programmes were revoked and the terrorism-sponsor designation rescinded, but list-based designations remain, pre-July-2025 conduct stays actionable under an express savings clause, and export controls did not follow the sanctions. A licence is still required for controlled items, with a presumption of approval only for named development sectors.
Under the 2026 customs law, fines run from four to five times the duties on misdeclared dutiable goods, with a floor at one and a half times value, and up to six to eight times value on prohibited goods. Sixty per cent of proceeds go to the treasury — and forty per cent is distributed to the seizing officers and their superiors. That is a documented incentive, and it is why documentation beats relationships here.
Four enforcement settlements in 2026, all from voluntary disclosures, arose from companies signing shipping or logistics paperwork certifying no Israeli-origin content or absence from a blacklist. The penalties were modest; the point is that the conduct was ordinary document handling, and the obligation bites on receipt of the request.
Five changes in twenty months, with at least one of them reported without a published decision number, and sources disagreeing on whether the nearly new threshold is two years or three. Stock bought against one rule has arrived under another, with settlement windows measured in days.
A portfolio built for a European or Gulf parc leans to low-ash grades formulated to protect particulate filters. Refinery diesel here was reported at a sulphur level far above what those categories contemplate, in a fleet where emissions hardware is frequently absent. This is an engineering inference rather than a rule — there is no local lubricant specification of any kind — but it is the inference a distributor should be making with you.
For most commercial goods, yes, and the position changed repeatedly between mid-2025 and late 2026. The United States revoked its comprehensive programme with effect from July 2025, removed the regulations from the code that August, saw the Caesar Act repealed in December 2025 and the terrorism-sponsor designation rescinded in August 2026. The European Union lifted economic measures in 2025 and restored its cooperation agreement in May 2026. What has not gone: list-based designations, arms and dual-use controls, and liability for conduct before July 2025.
No, and this is where most readings go wrong. A separate rule in September 2025 added a licence exception and liberalised policy, but a licence is still required for items on the control list, with a presumption of approval for commercial end uses supporting economic development in named sectors and case-by-case review otherwise. End-use and end-user controls continue regardless.
Overwhelmingly used, by a wide margin. New sales in the first quarter of 2026 were under two thousand units across six brands, while the ports authority registered over two hundred and twelve thousand used cars during the period imports were open, and traders described two hundred and fifty to three hundred sales a day. Trade data and trader accounts disagree on origin: traders name Korea, the Emirates and the United States; the trade statistics point to Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and the Emirates.
On the published evidence, no. The December 2025 investigation found no environmental inspection, no technical standards at entry points and no emissions testing at the border, with vehicles entering on customs documents alone. A customs broker interviewed for it proposed mandatory inspection in the country of origin, which is another way of saying it does not happen. The transport ministry replied that emissions testing would be implemented within available resources, and gave no inspection data.
There is no local specification, so treat this as engineering judgement rather than compliance. Domestic refinery diesel was reported at a sulphur level far above what the modern low-ash categories were written for, and in a fleet where emissions hardware is often missing or disabled. That points toward higher-reserve, higher-ash grades and shorter drain intervals than a European service schedule assumes. Have the conversation with your distributor and your formulator before you ship a European portfolio unchanged.
Assume this is unproven until your own bank confirms otherwise. The central bank executed what it described as its first letter of credit in fourteen years in October 2026, for a state petroleum purchase, and the reporting is explicit that this does not establish general availability. The International Monetary Fund said in August 2026 that the banking system remains dysfunctional. Official guidance notes that euro and regional-currency channels are increasingly workable alternatives to dollar settlement, and that account opening is not automatic.
Specifying for this fleet is the work, and it comes before any conversation about partners. Tell us what you make and we will come back on what the parc actually needs, how the channel is put together, and which firms we would look at.
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