ASSAD’S ALLIES GIVEN $18M IN UNITED NATIONS FUNDS

▶ Annual report shows contract awards, hotel bills and charity payments

The UN paid at least US$18 million last year to companies with close ties to Bashar Al Assad, some of them run by acquaintances of the Syrian president who are on US and EU blacklists.

Contracts for telecommunications and security were awarded to insiders including Rami Makhlouf, Mr Al Assad’s cousin.

UN staff ran up bill of a $9.5m, or Dh34.89m, at the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus, coowned by Syria’s tourism ministry, according to the world body’s annual report on procurement last year, a 739-page document published in June.

UN money also went to a charity founded by Mr Al Assad’s wife.

The UN has a global blacklist and is not bound by sanctions imposed by member states or regional blocs such as the EU.

But the distribution of funds to Al Assad allies has fuelled criticism that the world body has failed Syria, where more than six years of civil war has killed at least 400,000 people.

UN bodies have repeatedly condemned the conflict’s atrocities.

Western and Arab nations put most of the blame on Mr Al Assad, but the veto power wielded by Russia, a supporter of the Syrian government, has prevented the UN security council from endorsing tougher action or adding Mr Al Assad’s friends 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 is being rewarded. It sends the wrong message.’’

UN officials explained the difficulty of operating outside the auspices of governments in countries such as Syria, and the premium placed on protecting its staff.

“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 the UN’s 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 $140m on goods and services in Syria last year, the report said.

Syriatel, which belongs to Mr Makhlouf, was paid $164,300 by three 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 company he owns.

Mr Makhlouf has been on the US treasury blacklist since 2008. Qasioun was listed by the treasury’s office of foreign assets control in December.

He is “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 Centre 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 Al Assad insider, was added to the US sanctions list in 2011. The EU followed in 2015, saying he “benefits from and provides support to the Syrian regime through his business interests”.

Mr Hamsho controls Jupiter Investment, according to the US and EU. The company was awarded two contracts for offices and accommodation by the UN’s peacekeeping operation monitoring the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel.

The UN’s procurement report said the company received contracts worth $1.5m. A UN spokesman said that the world body had options to extend the leases, which are worth $7.7m.

A US treasury spokesman said that sanctions on Syria “prohibit American persons from engaging in a wide range of transactions, and block the Syrian government from certain activities”, but would not comment on individual companies.

Meanwhile, UN efforts to take food and medical relief to Syria have been targeted by the Al Assad government and criticised by his opponents.

Last September, Syrian planes bombed an aid convoy to the city of Aleppo, then under siege by the Syrian army and since captured from the rebels.

But Syrian and international non-government 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 last year, according to a World Food Programme report.

In September, 73 NGOs wrote to the UN condemning manipulation of relief efforts.

One group that handled aid deliveries is the Syria Trust for Development, a charity headed by Asma Al Assad, the president’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. It was, he said, “puzzling” that the UN was ignoring US blacklists.

“Especially considering that the US is its main funder.”

The key to getting anything done in Syria is to grease the palms of the powerful