Syriatel “Unaffected” by Sanctions

Syria’s most powerful businessman, Rami Makhluf, has said the United States sanctions against him have not affected his mobile phone company Syriatel, the pro-government Syria Steps website reported on May 30.



"Bush has made many wrong decisions, including this one,” Makhluf told members of Syriatel’s board, referring to the sanctions the US passed against him earlier this year. “We haven’t invested in the US, thank God."



Rami Makhluf, a nephew of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, owns 69 per cent of Syriatel, one of two mobile phone operators in Syria. In February, the Bush administration issued an order to freeze Makhluf’s US assets and bar Americans from doing business with him, on the grounds that he benefited from corruption in Syria.



Makhluf stressed that the US ruling was issued against him, not Syriatel.



"If you want to deposit funds in the US, we can do that,” he told board members with a laugh.



Makhuf said that Syriatel’s income rose 25 per cent to around 800 million US dollars last year, and that he was not currently considering selling any of his holdings in the firm, although there were companies interested in a merger with Syriatel.