The UN has awarded contracts worth tens of millions of dollars to people closely associated with Syrian President, Bashar Al-Assad, as part of an aid program that critics fear is increasingly at the whim of the government in Damascus, The Guardian newspaper in Britain revealed Monday.
Businessmen whose companies are under U.S. and EU sanctions have been paid substantial sums by the UN mission, as have government departments and charities – including one set up by the president’s wife, Asma Al-Assad, and another by his closest associate, Rami Makhlouf, the newspaper found.
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