Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

The new Syrian government’s approach toward powerful Assad-linked businesses will be key in determining the fate of the economy as the administration struggles to convince Washington and its allies to remove sanctions. (Reuters)
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Updated 13 February 2025
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Syria’s new leaders zero in on Assad’s business barons

DAMASCUS: Syria’s new rulers are combing through the billion-dollar corporate empires of ousted President Bashar Assad’s allies, and have held talks with some of these tycoons, in what they say is a campaign to root out corruption and illegal activity.

After seizing power in December, the new administration that now runs Syria pledged to reconstruct the country after 13 years of brutal civil war and abandon a highly-centralized and corrupt economic system where Assad’s cronies held sway.

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 US sanctions lists, according to correspondence between the Syrian Central Bank and commercial banks reviewed by Reuters.

Hamsho and Foz, targeted by US 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.

Accused by the US Treasury of getting rich off Syria’s war, Foz’s sprawling Aman Holding conglomerate has interests in pharma, sugar refining, trading and transport.

Hamsho’s interests, grouped under the Hamsho International Group, are similarly wide-ranging, from petrochemicals and metal products to television production.

Hamsho, whom the US Treasury has accused of being a front for Assad and his brother Maher, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Foz could not be reached. The establishment of the committee, whose members are not public, and the conversations between Syria’s new government and two of the Assad government’s closest tycoons who control large parts of Syria’s economy have not been previously reported.

The new Syrian government’s approach toward powerful Assad-linked businesses, yet to be fully clarified, will be key in determining the fate of the economy as the administration struggles to convince Washington and its allies to remove sanctions, Syrian analysts and businessmen say.

Trade Minister Maher Khalil Al-Hasan and Syrian investment chief Ayman Hamawiye both confirmed to Reuters the government had been in contact with some Assad-linked businessmen, but did not identify them or provide further details.

Khaldoun Zoubi, a long-term partner of Foz, confirmed his associate had held talks with Syrian authorities but did not confirm if he had been in the country.

“Foz told them he is ready to cooperate with the new administration and provide all the support to the Syrian people and the new state,” Zoubi said from the gilded lobby of the Four Seasons hotel in central Damascus, which Foz’s group majority owns. “He is ready to do anything asked of him.”

The two Syrian sources said Foz, who holds a Turkish citizenship, had left Damascus after the talks. Reuters could not ascertain Hamsho’s whereabouts.

The US has sanctioned Foz, Hamsho and others with a prominent economic role, including Yasser Ibrahim, Assad’s most trusted adviser.

Syrian analysts say around a dozen men make up the close ring of business barons tied to the former regime. HTS-appointed government officials consider all of them to be persons of interest.

Syrian authorities have ordered companies and factories belonging or linked to the tycoons to keep working, under supervision of HTS authorities, while the committee investigates their various businesses.

“Our policy is to allow for their employees to continue working and supplying goods to the market while freezing their money movements now,” Trade Minister Hasan told Reuters in an interview early in January. “It’s a huge file. (Assad’s business allies) have the economy of a state in their hands. You can’t just tell them to leave,” he added, explaining the new government could not avoid engaging with the tycoons.

Hamsho International Group is among those put under HTS supervision, according to the sources with direct knowledge.

A Reuters visit in late January showed little work was being carried out at its modern multi-story headquarters in Damascus, where some offices had been looted in the wake of Assad’s fall.

Staff have been instructed to cooperate fully with the new Syrian administration, members of whom regularly visit the company seeking information, said one employee, who asked not to be identified by name.

Some economists say the country’s dire economic situation required major domestic corporations to continue to operate regardless of who they may be affiliated with.

The UN says 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line. While basic goods shortages have eased after strict trade controls dissolved in the aftermath of Assad’s fall, many Syrians still struggle to afford them.

“Syrian authorities need to be wary of a harsh crackdown on former regime cronies because this could create significant shortages (of goods),” said Karam Shaar, director of a Syria-focused economic consultancy bearing his name.

Assad’s rapid fall, culminating with his Dec. 8 escape to Russia, left many Syrian oligarchs with no time to dispose of or move their local assets that have since been frozen, giving Syria’s new rulers strong leverage in dealing with the tycoons, according to two prominent businessmen and the government official.


Returning Syrian refugees cut global displaced total

Updated 12 June 2025
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Returning Syrian refugees cut global displaced total

  • UN believes 1.5m from abroad and 2m internally displaced will be home by the end of 2025

GENEVA: Refugees returning to Syria have cut the global total of displaced people from a record peak at the end of 2024, the UN said on Thursday.

More than 500,000 have returned from abroad and 1.2 million internally displaced people have gone back to their home areas since Bashar Assad was deposed in December. The UN refugee agency estimates 1.5 million from abroad and 2 million internally displaced will return by the end of 2025.
Worldwide, a record 123.2 million were forcibly displaced by last December, but the total had fallen to 122.1 million by the end of April. The main drivers of displacement were conflicts in Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine.

“We are living in a time of intense volatility ... with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering,” UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said. “We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes.”


Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’ of sovereignty after Israeli incursion

Updated 12 June 2025
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Syria condemns ‘blatant violation’ of sovereignty after Israeli incursion

  • One person killed and 7 captured during the pre-dawn operation in Beit Jin, Interior Ministry says

DAMASCUS: Syria’s Interior Ministry condemned an Israeli incursion in southern Syria, saying Israeli forces killed one person and abducted seven others, calling it a “blatant violation” of the country’s sovereignty.

“We affirm that these repeated provocations constitute a blatant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that “these practices cannot lead the region to stability and will only result in further tension and turmoil.”
The Israeli military said those detained during the pre-dawn raid on Beit Jin were suspected of planning attacks against Israel, and that weapons also were found in the area. 
They were taken back to Israel for questioning, the military said.
One person was killed and seven captured in the operation, Syria’s Interior Ministry said, while the father of the young man killed said he had a history of mental illness.
Since the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government in early December, Israeli forces have moved into several areas in southern Syria and conducted hundreds of airstrikes throughout the country, destroying much of the assets of the Syrian army.
Local broadcaster Syria TV described Thursday’s raid as being carried out by about 100 Israeli troops who stormed Beit Jin, near the border with Lebanon, and called out the names of several people targeted for arrest through loudspeakers.
Syria’s Interior Ministry said such incursions spike tensions in the region. 
“Such repeated provocative acts are a flagrant violation of Syria’s sovereignty,” the ministry said in a statement.
Village official Walid Okasha said that Israeli troops had entered the outskirts of Beit Jin in recent months, but that this was the first time they entered the center of the village. 
He added that Thursday’s operation came four days after an Israeli drone strike hit a car in the village, inflicting casualties.
“They came targeting specific people,” said Okasha, who denied that Hamas members were in the village.
He said the seven people taken to Israel were all Syrians and that two of them were members of the country’s new security forces. 
He said the man who was killed suffered from mental illness.
Ahmad Hammadi identified the victim as his son and told the AP that he had a history of schizophrenia. 
He said his son was shot dead in front of his home, and that he had no links to Hamas. 
He said two of the captured men were his nephews. Hussein Safadi said his two sons, Ahmad, 32, and Mohammed, 34, were captured, adding that his younger son, who raises goats, had lived in Lebanon for years until recently. 
He said his younger son was a member of the armed opposition against Assad and recently joined the security forces of the new authorities. As for why Israeli forces seized his sons, “we don’t know the reasons,” Safadi said.
During a visit to France last month, Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent hostilities from getting out of control.


Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis

Updated 12 June 2025
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Egypt blocks activists aiming to march to Gaza to draw attention to humanitarian crisis

  • Egyptian authorities and activists both said Thursday that people planning to march across the Sinai Peninsula were deported

RABAT: Egypt blocked activists planning to take part in a march to Gaza, halting their attempt to reach the border and challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory before it could begin.
Egyptian authorities and activists both said Thursday that people planning to march across the Sinai Peninsula were deported.
To draw attention to the humanitarian crisis afflicting people in Gaza, marchers have for months planned to trek about 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) from the city of Arish to Egypt’s border with the enclave on Sunday to “create international moral and media pressure” to open the crossing at Rafah and lift a blockade that has prevented aid from entering.
Saif Abu Keshek, one of the activists organizing the march, said that about 200 activists — mostly Algerians and Moroccans — were detained or deported.
But those arriving to the Cairo International Airport on Thursday afternoon were allowed into Egypt, the Spain-based activist added. Organizers have not received approval from Egyptian authorities for Sunday’s march and were evaluating how to proceed, he said.
An Egyptian official on Thursday said more than three dozen activists, mostly carrying European passports, were deported upon their arrival at the Cairo International Airport in the past two days.

The official said the activists aimed to travel to Northern Sinai “without obtaining required authorizations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.


King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

Updated 12 June 2025
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King Tut gold mask to leave Cairo museum after nearly 100 years

  • King Tutankhamun’s treasures to move to new Grand Egyptian Museum near Giza Pyramids
  • More than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb will be displayed at the $1-billion megaproject opening next month

CAIRO: After nearly a century in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, King Tutankhamun’s iconic gold mask and remaining treasures are set to move to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza Pyramids.
Visitors have just days left to see the boy king’s world-famous gold funerary mask before it joins more than 5,000 artefacts from his tomb at the GEM, a $1-billion megaproject opening on July 3.
“Only 26 objects from the Tutankhamun collection, including the golden mask and two coffins, remain here in Tahrir,” said museum director Ali Abdel Halim.
“All are set to be moved soon,” he told AFP, without confirming a specific date for the transfer.
The government has yet to officially announce when or how the last artefacts will be relocated.
Still on display are the innermost gold coffin, a gilded coffin, a gold dagger, cosmetic box, miniature coffins, royal diadem and pectorals.
Tutankhamun’s treasures, registered at the Egyptian Museum on Cairo’s Tahrir square in 1934, have long been its crown jewels.
But the neoclassical building — with faded cases, no climate control and aging infrastructure — now contrasts with the high-tech GEM.
Once open, the GEM is believed to be the largest in the world devoted to a single civilization, housing more than 100,000 artefacts — with over half on public display.
In a dedicated wing, most of King Tut’s treasures will be exhibited together for the first time in history since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the young pharaoh’s intact tomb in 1922.
His mummy will remain in its original resting place in Luxor’s Valley of the Kings as it is “a vital part of the archaeological site,” Egyptian officials have said.
A virtual replica, however, will be displayed at the GEM using virtual reality technology.
The Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, long the historic heart of Egyptology, has lost in 2021 other star exhibits: 22 royal mummies including Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut that were relocated in a widely watched state procession to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Old Cairo.
Still, it is home to around 170,000 artefacts, according to the museum director, including treasures from Yuya and Thuya — Tutankhamun’s ancestors — and items from ancient Tanis, such as the golden funerary mask of King Amenemope.
A total of 32,000 artefacts have already been relocated from storage and display halls at the Tahrir museum to the GEM.
The museum’s director said the space left behind by Tutankhamun’s collection will eventually be filled by a new exhibition “on par with the significance of Tut’s treasures.”


Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside

Updated 12 June 2025
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Syria condemns Israeli incursion into Damascus countryside

  • Atrack undermines Syria’s efforts to achieve stability and reconstruction, Foreign Ministry said
  • Israeli forces entered Beit Jinn in Qatana area killing one civilian and detaining others

LONDON: The Syrian Arab Republic condemned an overnight incursion by Israeli forces into its southern territory, resulting in the death of a civilian and the detention of scores of residents.

“(The) escalation represents a clear violation of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, including the 1974 Disengagement Agreement,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement on Thursday.

It added that the attack undermines Syria’s efforts to achieve stability and reconstruction and called on the UN Security Council “to take decisive steps to halt those repeated attacks and ensure respect for international law, in order to preserve regional security and stability.”

Syria’s Ministry of Interior said on Thursday that the Israeli forces killed one civilian and “kidnapped seven others during a raid in the town of Beit Jinn, (in the) Damascus countryside” overnight.

The Israeli forces, comprised of tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry vehicles, along with reconnaissance drones, entered Beit Jinn in the Qatana area in the country’s southern territory, 12 km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

“These practices cannot lead to stability in the region and will only lead to further tension and unrest,” the Ministry of Interior said.

Israeli forces took the detained Syrians into the territories it controlled following the fall of the Assad regime in December, and their fate remains “unknown,” the ministry added.