Syrian Activist: Regime Smuggling Money to Lebanon, Iran

A Syrian activist stressed the Syrian regime launched a wide money transfer operation to Lebanon and Iran since the beginning of the anti-regime protests in March, the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported on Friday.

“The amount of money that was smuggled by (Syrian President Bashar) Assad and the Syrian regime as of the beginning of the popular uprising against him, reached more than $23 billion,” Secretary of the Syrian Conference for Change in Antalya Mohammed Karkouti told the daily.

He added: “Most of the money was transferred to Lebanon, while part of it was sent to Iran.”

Karkouti urged the international community to “dry all the funds that provide the regime with the necessary liquidity, knowing that the measures and resolutions taken gradually provide Assad with the needed timeframe to continue his genocide against the Syrian people.”

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria and its Lebanon-based subsidiary and telecoms company Syriatel, stepping up the pressure on the regime.

In May, President Barack Obama also signed an executive order imposing targeted sanctions on Assad and several high-ranking Syrian government officials for their bloody crackdown on the demonstrators.