The fortune of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s family is likely to be between $1 billion and $2 billion, the US State Department said on Thursday, despite attempts to isolate the leader of the war-torn country .
In a report requested by Congress, the US State Department says it can only provide an “inaccurate estimate”, the Assads being suspected of possessing assets under assumed names or hidden by opaque montages.
“A complex system”
“Estimates based on publicly available information generally place the Assad family fortune between $1 billion and $2 billion,” says the public portion of the report, portions of which are classified.
The Assads are at the head of “a complex system, including shell companies and front companies, which serves as a tool for the regime to access financial resources”, according to the report, citing NGO information and media.
The estimate includes the president’s wife, brother, sister, cousins and uncle. Most are under US sanctions. The State Department says it does not have enough information about the assets of Bashar al-Assad’s three children, the youngest of whom is 17.
First visit to UAE
The United States imposed sanctions aimed at preventing normalization with the Syrian president, who has regained control of most of Syria’s territory after a decade of war.
But other countries are on the opposite trajectory. In March, Bashar al-Assad traveled to the United Arab Emirates, his first visit to an Arab country since the start of the war in 2011.
Triggered by the crackdown on pro-democracy protests, the war in Syria has claimed the lives of an estimated 500,000 people, devastated the country’s infrastructure and displaced millions of people.