Syria’s new transitional leadership have their work cut out for them. They are starting to rebuild from the ruins and wreckage of the civil war. To begin with they are dismantling the billion-dollar corporate empires of the ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s allies, and have held talks with some of these millionaires, in what they say is a campaign to root out corruption and illegal activity. After having succeeded in taking power in December, the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that now leads the new government pledged to reconstruct Syria. This follows 13 years of civil war and brutal destruction. The first move by the new administration was to abandon the previous highly-centralized and corrupt economic system of the Assad dynasty years.
To do so, the executive led by new president Ahmed al-Sharaa has set up a committee tasked with dissecting the sprawling corporate interests of high-profile Assad-linked tycoons including Samer Foz and Mohammad Hamsho, three sources told Reuters. Days after taking Damascus, the new administration issued orders aimed at freezing companies and bank accounts of Assad-linked businesses and individuals, and later specifically included those on U.S. sanctions lists, according to correspondence between the Syrian central bank and commercial banks reviewed by Reuters. Hamsho and Foz, targeted by U.S. sanctions since 2011 and 2019 respectively, returned to Syria from abroad and met with senior HTS figures in Damascus in January, according to a government official and two Syrians with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The two men, who are reviled by many ordinary Syrians for their close ties to Assad, pledged to cooperate with the new leadership’s fact-finding efforts, the three sources said.
It should be made clear that it will be a complex and delicate task to take apart the networks of patronage and friends Assad and his family built over the years. Patience and perseverance are required to deal with restructuring and setting up a frame work of accountability and transparency in place of the previous practices of corrupt dealings. The matter of the wealth acquired by the Foz and Hamsho personalities courtesy of the Assad presidential family needs to be thoroughly investigated. It could take a year to set up a new judiciary and constitution to lead to better practices both in Syrian politics and business. To begin with an anti-corruption commission as well as a truth and reconciliation commission needs to be set up. These can investigate the illicit practices of the business elite such as Foz and Hamsho.
It is likely hefty fines and prison sentences would be a starting point for the senior figures who were willing participants in the criminal networks and regime. No stone should be left unturned to unlock the truth. Al-Sharaah’s foreign minister Asaad Hassan al-Shabani will be attending an international conference in Paris on Thursday as regional and western powers seek to shield the country during its fragile transition from the ongoing stability writhing across the middle east and north Africa.
Asaad Hassan al-Shibani is leading a delegation for a first trip to the European Union since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad and days after President Emmanuel Macron invited Syria’s UN-sanctioned President Ahmed al-Sharaa to France. “This Paris meeting in a way is to help create a protective bubble around the Syria crisis to give them time to resolve it by dissuading the bad losers from destabilising the country,” a French official said. They said they were hopeful a compromise could be reached this month. Ahead of the meeting, main international donors will also take stock of the humanitarian situation, notably in northeastern Syria, where the impact of U.S. aid cuts has had a “terrifying” impact, according to a European official. Officials also said the subject of Western-backed Kurdish Syrian forces, the central government and Turkey, which deems part of those forces as terrorist groups, would also be discussed
Syria is in a delicate position. No one in the power centres of the world wants to see the country splinter into another civil conflict. Syria is surrounded by Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, Türkiye to north, Lebanon to the west and occupied Palestine and Israel to the south west. The governments of the western world would have you believe they are concerned about chaos spilling over from Syria if the country falls apart. They will state that they fear the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIL) could stage a return in the region. But it was the intelligence organizations of the west that created ISIS. The role of Türkiye in these forums is to assert that Kurdish militant group like YPG pose a threat to its integral sovereignty. Meanwhile it is good that the humanitarian situation is being considered.
The fact that Washington chose to cut the humanitarian aid shows they no longer consider Syria a priority. The regional powers of the Islamic world will have to step up and give what assistance they can.
Article written by:
Yacoob Cassim
Journalist at Radio Al Ansaar
