Several western newspapers, inclusion the Telegraph, have recently revealed collusion between the United Nations and Assad regime insiders and that the UN agencies paid millions of dollars to companies with close ties to Bashar al-Assad.
According to Bloomberg News, the United Nations paid at least $18 million last year to companies with close ties to Bashar al-Assad, some of them run by Assad’s cronies who are on US and European Union blacklists.
Two UN agencies have also partnered with the Syria Trust charity, an organization started and chaired by Assad’s wife, Asma, spending a total of $8.5m though Asma is under both US and EU sanctions.
More than $9.5 million of UN money has been spent on stays at the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus, which is co-owned by Syria’s tourism ministry, according to the UN latest annual procurement report.
Lucrative contracts for telecommunications and security were also awarded to regime insiders including Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin who is on the EU and US sanctions list. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)