The UN paid at least $18 million (Dh66m) last year to companies with close ties to Bashar Al Assad, some of them run by cronies of the Syrian president who are on US and EU blacklists.
Contracts for telecommunications and security were awarded to regime insiders including Rami Makhlouf, Mr Assad’s cousin. UN staff ran up a $9.5 million bill at the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus, co-owned by Syria’s tourism ministry, according to the UN’s annual report on procurement for 2016, a 739-page document published in June. Some UN money even went to a charity set up by the president’s wife.
The UN has its own global blacklist and is not bound by sanctions imposed by member states or regional blocs such as the EU. Still, the distribution of funds to Assad allies will further fuel criticism that the world body has failed badly over Syria, where more than six years of civil war have left at least 400,000 people dead.
UN bodies have repeatedly condemned the conflict’s atrocities. Western and Arab nations put most of the blame on Assad, yet the veto power wielded by Russia, a supporter of the Syrian regime, has prevented the UN Security Council from endorsing tougher action or adding Assad cronies to its blacklist.
“Any money going to Assad and his allies shows that the UN is not impartial but is in fact helping the largest player in the conflict,’’ said Kathleen Fallon, a spokeswoman for The Syria Campaign, an independent advocacy group. “The regime has been responsible for the majority of the deaths, and they are being rewarded. It sends the wrong message.’’
UN officials point to the difficulty of operating outside the auspices of governments in countries such as Syria, and the premium placed on protecting its staff. In 2003, when the US invasion of Iraq had begun evolving into a civil war with parallels to the Syrian conflict, UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and several members of his staff were killed by a car-bomb attack on the Baghdad hotel they were using as a base.
“We source locally and there are many places where the local economy is either state-owned or we have very limited options,’’ said Stephane Dujarric, the UN’s chief spokesman. Of UN spending at the Four Seasons, co-owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, he said: “That’s one place in Damascus that has been cleared for security.’’
The UN spent $140 million on goods and services in Syria last year, according to the report.
Syriatel, which belongs to Mr Makhlouf, was paid $164,300 by three different UN bodies including the refugee agency UNHCR and the children’s relief organisation UNICEF. Another UN agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, paid $105,043 to Qasioun, a security firm he owns.
‘Mr 10 per cent’
Mr Makhlouf, one of Syria’s richest businessmen, has been on the US Treasury’s blacklist since 2008. Qasioun was specifically listed by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control in December.
He’s “known as Mr 10 per cent in Syria because he has an interest in so much of the economy,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert who heads the Center of Middle East Studies at Oklahoma University. “The key to getting anything done in Syria is to grease the palms of the powerful.’’
Muhammad Hamsho, another regime insider, was added to the US sanctions list in 2011. The EU followed suit in 2015, saying he “benefits from and provides support to the Syrian regime through his business interests."
Mr Hamsho controls Jupiter Investment Co., according to the US and EU. The company was awarded two contracts for office space and accommodations by the UN’s peacekeeping operation monitoring the Golan Heights region between Syria and Israel. The UN’s procurement report for 2016 said the company received contracts worth $1.5 million. A UN spokesman said by e-mail that the world body had options to extend the leases, which have a total value of $7.7 million.
‘You don't know’
A Treasury spokesman said that US sanctions on Syria “prohibit American persons from engaging in a wide range of transactions, and block the Syrian government from certain activities’’, while declining to comment on specific companies.
Linda Robinson, a senior policy analyst at Rand Corp., said the UN’s “reputation has been damaged’’ over Syria, but acknowledged the difficulties it faces. “Assad has the ability to shut down independent actors and that limits who you can work with,’’ she said. “In some cases it’s not clear where the lines of company ownership lead and you don’t know the connections.’’
Meanwhile, UN efforts to bring food and medical relief to Syria have been physically targeted by Assad’s government — and also criticised by his opponents.
Last September, Syrian planes bombed an aid convoy carrying medicine and supplies to the city of Aleppo, then under siege by Assad’s army and since captured from the rebels.
‘Get things done’
But Syrian and international non-governmental organisations have complained that aid has disproportionately gone to government-controlled areas. They received 88 per cent of food aid distributed from Damascus in April 2016, according to a World Food Programme report. In September, 73 NGOs wrote to the UN condemning the manipulation of relief efforts.
One local group that handled aid deliveries is the Syria Trust for Development, a charity headed by Asma Al Assad, Bashar Al Assad’s wife. It was awarded $751,129 last year by the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
“The UN wants to be as close as possible to the regime to get things done,’’ said Reinoud Leenders, an associate professor at the Department of War Studies at King’s College in London. Still, he said, it’s “puzzling’’ that the UN is ignoring American blacklists. “Especially considering that the US is its main funder.’’
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Milkman by Anna Burns
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Circe by Madeline Miller
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Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Jonathan Miller, Scribe Publications
T20 World Cup Qualifier
Final: Netherlands beat PNG by seven wickets
Qualified teams
1. Netherlands
2. PNG
3. Ireland
4. Namibia
5. Scotland
6. Oman
T20 World Cup 2020, Australia
Group A: Sri Lanka, PNG, Ireland, Oman
Group B: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland
Ashes 2019 schedule
August 1-5: First Test, Edgbaston
August 14-18: Second Test, Lord's
August 22-26: Third Test, Headingley
September 4-8: Fourth Test, Old Trafford
September 12-16: Fifth Test, Oval
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Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
