Tycoon told to step down from Syriatel

Fall of Al Assad’s billionaire cousin shows rift within ruling minority Alawite sect

Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf issued a video statement on Sunday saying officials had told him to quit as head of mobile operator Syriatel, in the latest twist in a tussle over assets and taxes that has uncovered a rift at the heart of the ruling elite.

Makhlouf, a cousin of President Bashar Al Assad, said he would resist the pressure and refuse to step down as chairman — even though he said the officials had threatened to revoke the firm’s licence and seize its assets if he did not comply.

There was no immediate comment from the authorities.

They said you have until Sunday to either comply or the company will be taken and its assets seized.”

Rami Makhlouf | Head of Syriatel

Inner circle

Makhlouf, once widely considered part of the president’s inner circle and the country’s leading businessman whom the US Treasury said was the frontman for Al Assad’s family wealth, has a business empire that ranges from telecoms and real estate to construction and oil trading.

He played a big role in financing Al Assad’s war effort, Western officials have said, and is under US and EU sanctions.

But the video message — the third he has issued on the dispute in less than a month — underlined divisions that Syria experts say could mark the first major rift within the minority

Alawite sect that has ruled the country since Al Assad’s uncle Rifaat tried to depose Al Assad’s father, the late president Hafez, in 1984.

In the statement issued on Facebook, Makhlouf said officials, who he did not name, had told him: “If you don’t comply ... the licence will be revoked”.

Damage economy

“They said you have until Sunday to either comply or the company will be taken and its assets seized,” Makhlouf said, adding they were threatening board members with arrests. It was not immediately clear when the video was recorded and which Sunday he was referring to.

He said there would be a “catastrophic” blow to the economy if Syriatel collapsed.

The Syrian pound fell to a record low of 1,750 to the dollar on Sunday with fears the rift would further damage an economy already hit by tougher US sanctions and reeling from the damaging impact of the financial crisis in neighbouring Lebanon, which choked a main source of dollars into the country.