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Damascus Exposes ‘Shadow Financial Circles’

Mujahed Ismail, businessman, MP, and head of the “Baath Brigades”
Mujahed Ismail, businessman, MP, and head of the “Baath Brigades”
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Damascus Exposes ‘Shadow Financial Circles’

Mujahed Ismail, businessman, MP, and head of the “Baath Brigades”
Mujahed Ismail, businessman, MP, and head of the “Baath Brigades”

In a surprising move, Syrian state media reported Wednesday that the People's Assembly voted to allow legal action against lawmakers Mujahed Ismail, leader of the “Baath Brigades,” and Khaled Zubaidi, head of the Syrian-Algerian Business Council and a key player in the real estate sector.

This decision came just a day after the assembly unanimously voted to revoke the membership of businessman Mohammad Hamsho, closely linked to President Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher.

Hamsho is the second member to lose his seat in less than a month for holding Turkish citizenship, following the removal of Aleppo MP Shadi Dibs on Oct. 10.

In a brief report, the local newspaper Al-Watan announced that the assembly voted to permit legal action against Ismail and Zubaidi, but did not clarify the reasons for these proceedings.

This development is significant, as it marks a first in the assembly’s history since President Hafez al-Assad came to power in the early 1970s.

Traditionally, members have needed to gain approval from decision-making circles based on their security profiles, according to sources in Damascus cited by Asharq Al-Awsat.

Although the vote results have not been disclosed, leaks from unofficial local media about the legal actions against key regime figures suggest a potential shift in protection, indicating that these individuals may now be at risk of exclusion from influential financial networks.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that these recent actions signal Damascus's commitment to making changes aimed at reorganizing its internal structure.

This effort is in response to Arab pressures for progress in normalizing relations with Syria, which depend on addressing issues like drug trafficking, refugee returns, and advancing a political solution to the crisis.

These topics were key points in discussions last Sunday between Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Syrian officials.

The sources also suggested that the Assad regime may consider restructuring its economic front, much of which is currently subject to international sanctions.

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Arab World

Middle East Aid Workers Say Rules of War Being Flouted

Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP
Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP
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Middle East Aid Workers Say Rules of War Being Flouted

Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP
Members of the Lebanese Red Cross inspect damage after an Israeli bombardment - AFP

Flagrant violations of the laws of war in the escalating conflict in the Middle East are setting a dangerous precedent, aid workers in the region warn.

"The rules of war are being broken in such a flagrant way... (it) is setting a precedent that we have not seen in any other conflict," Marwan Jilani, the vice president of the Palestine Red Crescent (PCRS), told AFP.

Speaking last week during a meeting in Geneva of the 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, he lamented a "total disregard for human life (and) for international humanitarian law".

Amid Israel's devastating retaliatory operation on October 7 in the Gaza Strip , local aid workers are striving to deliver assistance while facing the same risks as the rest of the population, he said.

The PCRS has more than 900 staff and several thousand volunteers inside Gaza, where more than 43,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory's health ministry, and where the UN says virtually the entire population has been repeatedly displaced.

- 'Deliberate targeting' -

"They're part of the community," said Jilani. "I think every single member of our staff has lost family members."

He decried especially what he said was a "deliberate targeting of the health sector".

Israel rejects such accusations and maintains that it is carrying out its military operations in both Gaza and Lebanon in accordance with international law.

But Jilani said that "many of our staff, including doctors and nurses... were detained, were taken for weeks (and) were tortured".

Since the war began, 34 PRCS staff and volunteers have been killed in Gaza, and another two in the West Bank, "most of them while serving", he said.

Four other staff members are still being held, their whereabouts and condition unknown.

Jilani warned that the disregard for basic international law in the expanding conflict was eroding the belief that such laws even exist.

A "huge casualty of this war", he said, "is the belief within the Middle East that there is no international law".

- 'Unbelievable' -

Uri Shacham, chief of staff at the Israeli's emergency aid organization Magen David Adom (MDA), also decried the total disregard for laws requiring the protection of humanitarians.

- Gaza scenario looming -

The Red Cross in Lebanon, where for the past month Israel has been launching ground operations and dramatically escalating its airstrikes against Hezbollah, also condemned the slide.

Thirteen of its volunteers have been recently injured on ambulance missions.

One of its top officials, Samar Abou Jaoudeh, told AFP that they did not appear to have been targeted directly.

"But nevertheless, not being able to reach the injured people, and (missiles) hitting right in front of an ambulance is also not respecting IHL," she said, stressing the urgent need to ensure more respect for international law on the ground.

Abou Jaoudeh feared Lebanon, where at least 1,620 people have been killed since September 23, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, could suffer the same fate as Gaza.

"We hope that no country would face anything that Gaza is facing now, but unfortunately a bit of that scenario is beginning to be similar in Lebanon," she said.

The Lebanese Red Cross, she said, was preparing "for all scenarios... but we just hope that it wouldn't reach this point".