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| Top, Mohammad Hamsho and a banner slamming him. Below, Maher and brother Bashar |
Moaz
al-Khatib, head of the Syrian opposition umbrella, has pulled a second rabbit
out of his hat.
He pulled
his first four weeks ago, when he made a “personal” and conditional offer for
talks with representatives of the Syrian regime.
That rabbit
was promptly returned to the hutch by the collective leadership of the Syrian
National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces.
The second
rabbit to come out of al-Khatib’s hat was a hush-hush meeting he is said to have held with
Mohammad Hamsho, brother-in-law and longtime front for the shady business of
Maher al-Assad.
Maher is the
most powerful man in Syria after his brother, President Bashar al-Assad. He
commands the Republican Guard and the army’s elite Fourth Armored Division.
The U.S.
Treasury imposed sanctions on Hamsho and his businesses in August
2011.
"Muhammad Hamsho
earned his fortune through his connections to regime insiders, and during the
current unrest, he has cast his lot with Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad and
others responsible for the Syrian government’s violence and intimidation
against the Syrian people," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and
Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. "The sanctions we are applying… to
Hamsho and his company are the direct consequence of his actions."
According to the U.S.
Treasury, Hamsho “has served as a front to mask a senior Syrian official’s
illicit and licit financial and business transactions. Members of the
Syrian business community believe that Hamsho is a successful businessman
because of his relationship to Syrian elites rather than his business
acumen."
The Damascus government Sunday described as “untrue” reports about a secret meeting between a regime
representative and an opposition figure.
Khatib
himself did not specifically deny an encounter with Hamsho took place. Instead,
he wrote on his personal Facebook page,
“There were no meetings to talk or exchange political messages with any side,
whether a Syrian politician or businessman.”
But the
leading Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat quotes
an unnamed Syrian National Coalition official as saying the meeting happened
“before February 14” but was “apolitical and unplanned.”
The first to
break the news about the Khatib-Hamsho encounter was Faeq al-Mir, the one-time
“prisoner of conscience” now living underground in Syria and heading the
leftist “Syrian People’s Democratic Party.”
Mir said
Khatib told the National Coalition “collegiate” leadership, “Hamsho did all the
talking in our one-hour meeting. My answer took two minutes.”
