A member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition’s (SOC) Political Committee, Abdelbaset Abdullatif, said that the Assad regime, fueled by Captagon factories, has become the leading extortionist in the region. He stressed that regional countries are offering billions of dollars in the hope that the regime will cease its destructive involvement in the narcotics trade, which adversely affects the people and nations of the area.
Abdullatif emphasized that since 2011, the Assad regime has been wreaking havoc upon Syria and its citizens, expanding its destructive project to encompass the entire region. He further asserted that the nations within the vicinity are beginning to experience the genuine threat posed by the Assad regime, as its narcotic products have become a matter of international concern.
Drawing attention to Jordan’s recent airstrikes on Captagon manufacturing sites situated in the regime-held areas in the eastern countryside of As-Suwayda, adjacent to the Jordanian border, Abdul Latif suggested that such actions highlight the imminent danger felt by Jordan.
He called for stricter Western sanctions against the Assad regime and rejected any attempts to ease these sanctions until significant progress is made in the political process, leading to a political transition in the country in accordance with the 2012 Geneva Communique and UN Resolutions 2118 and 2254.
Last month, the European Union imposed sanctions on two cousins of Bashar al-Assad, the head of the regime, on charges of smuggling Captagon. The EU identified the drug trade as “the primary source of revenue for the regime.”
(Source: SOC’s Media Department)
