Destroyed damascus
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The Syrian government plans to demand apologies from the countries that deliberately destroyed the Arab republic and now want to take part in its reconstruction, Syrian Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Adib Mayyaleh said Monday.

Speaking of the future of the Syrian reconstruction, the minister stressed that the Syrian government had a "number of special conditions" for the countries that supported illegal armed groups on Syrian territory and are now using non-governmental funds and national enterprises to become part of the reconstruction process.

"To be allowed to take part in the process of Syrian reconstruction, these countries will have to apologize to the Syrian people and publicly admit they have made a mistake," Mayaleh told the Lebanese Al Mayadeen channel.

Damascus is "keeping an eye" on all the companies that expressed desire to take part in the revival of Syrian economy, the minister said, underlining that the closest allies of Damascus - Moscow, Beijing and Tehran — will have the advantage in the matter.

"Cooperation with these [three] countries will be carried out within the framework of the plan of the revival of the economy, which will be developed by a strong centralized state," the minister said, adding that over the past two weeks alone Syria has signed five agreements with Iran.

In December 2016, representative of the Moscow-Cairo-Astana-formed opposition group Qadri Jamil said Syria would demand financial compensation to its people from the countries that took part in the destruction of the Arab republic.

Since 2011, Syria has been engulfed in a civil war, with government forces fighting against numerous opposition and terrorist groups, including al-Nusra Front and Daesh, banned in a range of countries, including Russia.