No spoils of warfare: Syria's new ruler lays down the legislation to loyalists

[ad_1] DAMASCUS (Reuters) — “I didn’t know the salaries the federal government pays have been this excessive!” Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa joked after greater than 100 loyalists arrived at his former insurgent base, many pulling up in luxurious SUVs.

“Have you ever forgotten you're the sons of the revolution?” Sharaa rebuked the gathered officers and enterprise leaders, in accordance with two folks current, remarking upon the big variety of Cadillac Escalades, Vary Rovers and Chevrolet Tahoes parked outdoors. “Have you ever been tempted so shortly?”

Syria’s militant commander-turned-ruler has confronted a turbulent 10 months since toppling President Bashar al-Assad after 14 years of civil warfare. The nation has suffered sporadic bouts of sectarian violence involving ex-rebel factions linked to his new authorities, leaving greater than 2,000 folks useless, and there’s been a spate of pressured evictions and property seizures.

The assembly on August 30, which hasn’t been reported earlier than, came about at Sharaa’s former headquarters in Idlib province in northwestern Syria, removed from his official presidential places of work in Damascus. The chief, a one-time al-Qaeda commander, was flanked by two senior safety officers as he spoke.

Sharaa ordered civil servants with luxurious automobiles handy over the keys or face being investigated for illicit good points, in accordance with the 2 attendees in addition to two civil servants briefed on the handle, who all requested anonymity to debate confidential issues. A handful of keys have been handed in as folks filed out on the finish, the attendees instructed Reuters.

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By signing up, you conform to the terms The message delivered to loyalists factors to a crucial problem going through the 43-year-old president, in accordance with Syrian officers and analysts: methods to pivot from an insurgency to a civilian authorities with out replicating the endemic corruption of Assad’s reviled police state.

At stake is the legitimacy Sharaa has gained amongst many Syrians, and overseas, by ousting the dictator.

Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visits a polling station the place members of Syrian native committees solid their votes within the nation’s choice course of to designate an interim parliament, in Damascus on October 5, 2025 (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) “Sharaa lacks any institutional framework or textbooks to depend on,” mentioned Hossam Jazmati, a Syrian researcher on Islamist teams who has studied the previous warrior-sheikh for greater than a decade.

“He’s not a product of a state establishment however of a faction. Since 2003, he has operated inside a militia surroundings,” he mentioned. “Energy was based mostly on alliances, favoritism and monopoly.

Now, loyalists taking spoils of warfare would threaten his capability to consolidate energy, Jazmati mentioned: “He requires substantial monetary sources to maintain his administration — not essentially for private achieve, however to take care of authority.”

Syria’s Ministry of Info instructed Reuters that Sharaa had organized a “pleasant, casual assembly” in Idlib with former commanders, officers and different notables which touched on political and safety challenges in addition to the necessity to change the “funding tradition established by the previous regime.”

“He harassed that he wouldn't tolerate any suspicion of corruption amongst state workers,” the ministry mentioned.

It denied that any automotive keys have been handed over.

Shutting out his brother Sharaa’s balancing act could be seen even inside his circle of relatives.

Two older brothers maintain high jobs within the new authorities. Hazem oversees international and native enterprise and funding in Syria, together with the work of former insurgent fighters tasked with overhauling Syria’s economic system. Maher, a gynaecologist with Syrian-Russian twin nationality, is secretary-general of the presidency, chairing official conferences and attending talks with international dignitaries, together with Sharaa’s assembly with Vladimir Putin in Moscow this month.

A number of Syrian officers mentioned Sharaa’s reliance on kin and others near him was a results of needing to shortly fill gaps in his new administration following the sudden collapse of Assad’s authorities. Critics see it as a worrying emulation of household rule underneath the outdated regime.

Site visitors strikes on the entrance of Daraya, on the outskirts of Damascus, on October 29, 2025 (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) However one other elder brother — Jamal, a businessman — has fallen foul of Sharaa’s fledgling anti-corruption drive, in accordance with six folks conversant in the matter, together with authorities officers and enterprise figures.

Following Sharaa’s rise to energy, Jamal arrange an workplace within the capital Damascus from the place he ran varied ventures, together with import-export and tourism companies, they mentioned. He grew to become a standard sight in upmarket resort lobbies and eating places, to which he was pushed in a black Mercedes S-class saloon with tinted home windows and no license plates.

Sharaa ordered the workplace be shut in August and instructed authorities entities to not cope with his brother, the sources instructed Reuters. The choice involved allegations that Jamal had used his household hyperlink to the president to arrange dozens of conferences with authorities and enterprise figures to advance his private pursuits, they mentioned.

A Reuters reporter discovered the workplace shut and locked this month, with pink wax blotched on the doorways. Nobody answered the doorbell.

Purple wax is usually used within the area, together with in Syria, to seal properties ordered shut pending corruption investigations.

Syria’s data ministry confirmed the workplace had been closed down. “Jamal al-Sharaa was not permitted to work as an funding or business entity,” it instructed Reuters. “The presidency has clarified for the reason that formation of the federal government that Jamal al-Sharaa didn't maintain any official place.”

The ministry didn’t say whether or not, or what, particular expenses authorities had been levelled towards the president’s brother.

Syrian kids play on swings in a park, close to war-damaged buildings, within the suburb of Darayya, south-west Damascus, on October 30, 2025. (LOUAI BESHARA / AFP) Shortly after closing Jamal’s workplace, Sharaa held a gathering with members of the family, together with his 79-year-old father, warning them towards exploiting the household title for private achieve, in accordance with a relative who attended the assembly.

Jamal instructed Reuters in an announcement that he didn't have a personal workplace nor any business actions in Damascus and didn’t maintain any official place in authorities. He mentioned “reviews in regards to the existence of a ‘enterprise workplace’ or ‘conferences with businessmen and officers’ are pure fabrication.

“Each Syrian citizen has the correct to conduct reliable enterprise throughout the framework of relevant legal guidelines, a proper that shouldn't be used as a pretext for defamation or the dissemination of malicious accusations,” he added.

Stories of corrupt practices by these in energy The warning that Sharaa delivered to loyalists in August adopted complaints voiced by odd Syrians at a gathering with the president earlier that month over the newfound luxurious of some former rebels now within the civil service, in accordance with an attendee.

Sharaa has since reiterated his anti-corruption message in public in Damascus.

In an October 13 clip launched by state media, he instructed officers they have to disclose present investments and have been banned from coming into into new non-public tasks. He additionally mentioned private relationships with businessmen needs to be prevented, warning them to not repeat the mannequin seen underneath Assad.

Corruption nonetheless persists in post-Assad Syria, together with the fee of bribes to get out of jail or recuperate homes, autos and different valuables seized by members of the brand new ruling order, in accordance with interviews with 9 Syrian enterprise figures and former and present officers.

One industrialist and two senior manufacturing unit managers, who all requested anonymity to talk freely, mentioned they'd been pressured to pay money to well-connected intermediaries, with no receipt or formal documentation, to maintain their companies working or safe the discharge of workers detained over alleged previous ties to the Assad regime.

One mentioned he paid $100,000 for the discharge of a employee, solely to be instructed he must fork out one other $100,000 if he wished the worker to be allowed to renew work.

One other mentioned he paid $25,000 to get an worker launched.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the accounts.

Folks store in Aleppo, Syria, on September 02, 2025 (Bakr Al Kasem / Anadolu/Reuters) The knowledge ministry mentioned such practices weren't widespread and that some folks suspected of taking bribes in trade for releasing detainees or doing different official enterprise had been referred for “speedy investigation”.

A serious space of concern inside Syria’s enterprise neighborhood, in accordance with the folks interviewed, is the opaque strategy of settlement offers struck by authorities officers with folks accused of hyperlinks to Assad. The offers, during which enterprise house owners hand over property in trade for being allowed to return to work in Syria, started to take form instantly after Damascus fell.

Authorities try to route all such settlements through a committee on illicit good points fashioned in Could, earlier than turning the property over to a brand new sovereign wealth fund that's nonetheless being arrange, in accordance with six folks, together with authorities officers and businessmen conversant in the matter.

The fund now holds a whole lot of firms, workplace buildings, factories and different property linked to folks accused of connections to the Assad regime, the six folks mentioned.

However these two fledgling entities have additionally come underneath scrutiny.

Two legal professionals working for the fund have been arrested pending investigations over alleged graft, with one detained for greater than a month, the folks instructed Reuters.

The knowledge ministry confirmed the arrests, saying the legal professionals have been being investigated over “alleged theft that has not but been confirmed.” Some members of the illicit good points committee, which is tasked with investigating corruption, have additionally been detained for investigations about suspected wrongdoing, although not formally arrested, the ministry mentioned.

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