Video tiff points to growing Assad family rift

Makhlouf miffed

BEIRUT, May 18, (AP): Syria’s telecommunications authority on Sunday said a deadline for a cellular company owned by the cousin of President Bashar Assad to pay back its debts to the state has ended, adding that legal measures will be taken against the company to recover the money.

The announcement came hours after Assad’s cousin, Rami Makhlouf, released a new video in which the businessman said he was asked to step down from the leadership of Syriatel, the biggest telecommunication company in the country. Syriatel has 11 million subscribers, with 50% of revenues going to the state.

The new video by Makhlouf, the third in less than a month, was another hint of a rumored major rift in the tight-knit Assad family, which has ruled Syria for nearly 50 years.

Makhlouf was once described as central to Syria’s economy and a partner to the president. His videos, posted on a new Facebook page, seem to be a running public diary of a widening rift - and the fall from grace of a once-powerful tycoon.

In the latest video, Makhlouf, who is under

American and European sanctions, vowed not to give up the company and apologized to his arrested employees, whom he was unable to get released after they were detained in recent

weeks. Makhlouf did not say who had called on him to step down.

The Syrian Telecommunications Regulatory Authority said in a statement carried by state

news agency SANA that Syriatel had refused to pay fees to the state, therefore “Syriatel will be responsible for all the legal repercussions” for refusing to give back the dues.

In his first video in late April, Makhlouf pleaded with Assad to help prevent the company’s collapse through excessive and “unjust” taxation.