The Syrian authorities have stepped up measures to stop the Syrian pound’s steep decline, at a time when Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of President Bashar al-Assad, issued a strong warning that the coming days would be “decisive.”
On Tuesday, the Central Bank of Syria issued a circular, setting a limit of 5 million Syrian pounds for transfers between the country’s different governorates.
The Central Bank had warned against dealing with “unidentified persons" involved in transfers, and threatening those who deal with them with “legal prosecution for crimes including financing terrorism.”
The Ministry of Interior announced on its Facebook page the arrest of six people on charges of dealing with foreign currencies, in addition to “practicing illegal money transfers that are now associated with terrorism financing.”
Assad had issued a decree stipulating tougher penalties for dealers with foreign currencies as a method of payments, threatening them with a minimum of seven years of hard labor and financial fines.
Meanwhile, Syria’s stock market suspended trading Tuesday for the largest mobile operator in the country, owned by Makhlouf.
In a Facebook post after the decision, Makhlouf said that over the past 10 years, 70% of the company’s profits were spent on charity.
He pointed to “an invisible hand with super powers that lets some people violate private property and threaten serious measures.”
He added that in the past month the authorities expanded a tax dispute with Syriatel, demanding half of the company’s revenues, and that Syriatel’s managers were pressured through arrests and other means to stop communicating with him.
Makhlouf said that the coming days would be decisive, pointing out that the situation should not reach the point of requesting a judicial guard to defend his company.