British-born Razan Saffour, far right, accompanies Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, front left, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. AFP
British-born Razan Saffour, far right, accompanies Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, front left, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. AFP
British-born Razan Saffour, far right, accompanies Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, front left, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. AFP
British-born Razan Saffour, far right, accompanies Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, front left, in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. AFP

Britain’s influence spreads through new Syria as security chief meets post-Assad leaders


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The UK’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell recently held a low-key meeting with the new Syrian administration, sources have disclosed, boosting suggestions he will play a leading role in relations.

Mr Powell, who served as chief of staff during Tony Blair’s tenure as prime minister, was appointed to the role of UK National Security Adviser by the Labour government in November, only weeks before the toppling of Bashar Al Assad.

Two sources confirmed a recent meeting between Mr Powell and the post-Assad regime, which built on his historic contacts in the country. His office would not comment.

Britain's relations with the Syrian administration are understood to be good, despite no ministerial visit. Unlike ministers from Germany and France, the UK’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy has yet to visit Damascus since the toppling of dictator Mr Al Assad. France also hosted an international conference on Syria in December.

Instead, the UK is wielding considerable influence in post-Assad Syria, through a combination of political connections, charity operations and a well-networked returning diaspora, The National can reveal.

British Syrians in Damascus are now hoping for the lifting of sanctions to allow for rebuilding and investment after 14 years of civil war.

There has been disappointment from the British-Syrian community about the UK's "low profile" on the issue. But Britain’s long-standing support for the opposition in Syria, plus envoy Ann Snow’s recent engagement with the new administration, has placed UK relations on par with Germany and France, a former diplomat for the traditional Syrian opposition told The National.

Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara met British Foreign Office official Stephen Hickey and special representative Ann Snow on December 16. AFP
Syria's President Ahmad Al Shara met British Foreign Office official Stephen Hickey and special representative Ann Snow on December 16. AFP

"The UK supported change since 2011 and they supported the opposition in many ways. The relationship and contact is there, and there is mutual understanding,” said Walid Saffour, who was exiled to the UK more than 40 years ago and represented the Syrian National Coalition in the UK in 2012, but is not involved in the new Syrian administration.

Meanwhile, a new generation of British Syrians are advising the new administration, although this is not connected to any UK government initiative. Syrians from civil society, political and legal support groups established by diaspora communities in the past 14 years are helping to shape the course of policy.

Their expertise covers law, governance and preservation of civil freedom. The sharp increase in the number of well-attended conferences and workshops taking place in Syria since December indicates that those inside the country are hungry for political participation, paths to justice for victims of past crimes, and knowledge about how their country can be reshaped after more than five decades of one-family rule.

Syria's new government is pushing for sanctions imposed on the country in the Bashar Al Assad era to be lifted. EPA
Syria's new government is pushing for sanctions imposed on the country in the Bashar Al Assad era to be lifted. EPA

Diaspora links

Some Syrians who have returned are directly participating in the government. Among them is Razan Saffour, Mr Saffour’s daughter, who became a prominent voice of the opposition during the civil war. She travelled with Syria’s interim leader Ahmad Al Shara during his first official state visit to Saudi Arabia and sat in on the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. She also accompanied Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani to the Munich Security Conference last week.

Razan Saffour with Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani as he meets German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the Munich Security Conference. AFP
Razan Saffour with Syria's Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani as he meets German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock at the Munich Security Conference. AFP

Ms Saffour was born and raised in London, where she studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies. She travelled to Damascus for the first time in January with her father, and his partially destroyed childhood home in Homs was one of their first stops.

Oxford-educated barrister Ibrahim Al Olabi was appointed as an adviser for human rights to the new administration. Mr Al Olabi practises at law firm Guernica 37 and is the founder of the UK-based NGO Syrian Legal Development Programme.

He is widely regarded as being concerned with achieving justice for Syrians, having worked for years advising European governments and police forces on crimes related to Syria. He was part of the legal team advising the Netherlands on actions to bring the former Syrian regime to account for crimes involving torture.

Powell role

Mr Powell's knowledge of Syria pre-dates the civil war. His brother, Lord Charles Powell, is a trustee of the Said Foundation, set up by British-Syrian businessman and philanthropist Wafic Said. Mr Said met Mr Al Shara in mid-January at the presidential palace in Damascus.

Jonathan Powell, the British National Security Adviser. Getty Images
Jonathan Powell, the British National Security Adviser. Getty Images

This personal connection and the work done by the Said Foundation has given Mr Powell a long-standing and extensive knowledge of the country and the issues it faces, according to those who know him. As well as the recent meeting is also thought he had established back-channel contact with Hayat Tahrir Al Sham before it took power via Inter Mediate, the negotiation and diplomacy charity he co-founded with Martin Griffiths, the founder and former director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva.

In 2021 it was claimed that Mr Powell had even met Mr Al Shara, although that was denied by the Syrian group.

Mr Powell – who was the chief negotiator in Northern Ireland peace talks that led to the Good Friday Agreement – is an advocate of engagement with terrorist groups and has said that the lessons from the Troubles can be applied to other conflicts.

Britain’s Foreign Office has for several years used paid contractors to help displaced Syrians return home, address community tension between Arabs and Kurds and report back to London on the situation in north-east Syria. Aims of UK-funded projects also included challenging Russian narratives and “amplifying truth and the views of moderate Syrians”, according to government documents.

Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, right, met businessman Wafic Said at the People’s Palace in Damascus in January. Photo: Sana
Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara, right, met businessman Wafic Said at the People’s Palace in Damascus in January. Photo: Sana

Taking the appropriate tone with the new regime will be key, according to former British Army officer Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, who has written extensively on Syria and has been in the country this month. He acknowledged the new government in Damascus “does not need us to tell them what to do”, but instead requires “advice and resources” to ensure they can achieve their plans.

Writing in The National, Mr de Bretton-Gordon said: “It was ostensibly the British Syrian diaspora from the Syrian British Medical Society (SBMS) and Union of Syrian Medical Charities who kept the medical facilities in Idlib running, giving the residents some hope and the will to carry on.”

Syria's economy - in pictures

  • Stacks of Syrian banknotes are piled on a currency trader's stall at a market in Manbij, in Syria's northern Aleppo province. All photos: AFP
    Stacks of Syrian banknotes are piled on a currency trader's stall at a market in Manbij, in Syria's northern Aleppo province. All photos: AFP
  • People queue outside the main headquarters of the country's central bank in Damascus as they wait to exchange US dollars at prices lower than the black market.
    People queue outside the main headquarters of the country's central bank in Damascus as they wait to exchange US dollars at prices lower than the black market.
  • A Syrian fruit seller in the north-west Idlib province.
    A Syrian fruit seller in the north-west Idlib province.
  • A busy shop in Al Dana, in Idlib province. The Syrian pound has been disappeared from the markets since the fall of the Assad regime.
    A busy shop in Al Dana, in Idlib province. The Syrian pound has been disappeared from the markets since the fall of the Assad regime.
  • A market stall in Aleppo province in 2021, 10 years after the uprising against former president Bashar Al Assad began.
    A market stall in Aleppo province in 2021, 10 years after the uprising against former president Bashar Al Assad began.
  • People queue outside the main headquarters of the central bank in Damascus. Mr Al Assad's government fell in December.
    People queue outside the main headquarters of the central bank in Damascus. Mr Al Assad's government fell in December.
  • Since the downfall of the Assad regime, general prices of goods have come down by up to 30 per cent in large urban centres including Damascus.
    Since the downfall of the Assad regime, general prices of goods have come down by up to 30 per cent in large urban centres including Damascus.
  • Petrol is sold by the side of a road in Damascus.
    Petrol is sold by the side of a road in Damascus.
  • Use of the US dollar is starting to increase in Syria, as confidence in the national currency remains low.
    Use of the US dollar is starting to increase in Syria, as confidence in the national currency remains low.
  • A man sells petrol in Damascus. The HTS-led government aims to show it can fuel an economic recovery in Syria.
    A man sells petrol in Damascus. The HTS-led government aims to show it can fuel an economic recovery in Syria.
  • A currency trader exchanges Syrian pounds for customers in Damascus. The value of the currency has fluctuated in recent weeks.
    A currency trader exchanges Syrian pounds for customers in Damascus. The value of the currency has fluctuated in recent weeks.

He visited the new Health Ministry and said it would like to replicate what SBMS did across the whole of Syria. “Also, in the same vein they have asked the White Helmets, the civil emergency teams … to run the emergency services now country-wide,” he said.

“The revolution which toppled the old guard in Damascus grew out of north-west Syria, and the interim President … appears to be a viable leader. The Syrians I know, some very close to the new team, tell me they are the real deal.

“Britain is uniquely placed through the British-Syrian diaspora to make a real difference, and opening the British Embassy in Damascus cannot happen soon enough.”

British Syrians hope developments will lead swiftly to a lifting of sanctions. Ghaith Armanazi, a British-Syrian diplomat and former ambassador to the Arab League in London, said members of the community had met City firms keen on investing in Syria.

“An idea is being developed at the moment with members of the Syrian community promoting the idea of an international conference that would look into bringing investment into Syria,” Mr Armanazi told The National. "All areas of Syria need help: education, finance, energy and tourism. These areas are ripe for development and recovery from all these years of conflict."

British Syrians hope the transfer of power will lead to the lifting of sanctions to allow reconstruction and investment to begin. Getty Images
British Syrians hope the transfer of power will lead to the lifting of sanctions to allow reconstruction and investment to begin. Getty Images

He also suggested that the UK could open offshoots of its schools and universities in Syria. “One of the messages the new administration is projecting is how open they are and different from the socialist model of the [Assad regime],” Mr Armanazi said.

The UK will debate easing restrictions applying to energy, transport and finance sectors, Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty said last week.

But more radical measures were needed, said Mr Saffour. “In the long term we have to lift sanctions altogether otherwise the situation in Syria will stay as it is. Refugees will not be able to go back. It is a country without services,” he said.

The diaspora’s input may also ensure that the desires and demands of a broad range of Syrian views are represented in building new institutions, policy planning, and the writing of a new constitution, potentially tempering the positions of more hardline, conservative officials who have joined Ahmad Al Shara’s new administration in Damascus from HTS's former Syrian Salvation Government in Idlib.

At the end of last month, 48 Syrian civil society organisations that had worked in opposition-held areas of the country and abroad held a meeting attended by Judge Khitam Haddad, caretaker Deputy Minister of Justice for Legal Affairs and Studies, at Damascus’s Cham Palace hotel. The meeting proposed specific and urgent recommendations to the new authorities on initiating legal accountability and transitional justice processes, which, the groups said, were “essential to prevent the country descending into civil conflict".

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

THE SPECS

Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Transmission: six-speed manual
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 370Nm
Speed: 0-100km/h 3.9 seconds
Price: Dh230,000
On sale: now

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How to report a beggar

Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)

Dubai – Call 800243

Sharjah – Call 065632222

Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372

Ajman – Call 067401616

Umm Al Quwain – Call 999

Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

The bio

Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home

%E2%80%98White%20Elephant%E2%80%99
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The President's Cake

Director: Hasan Hadi

Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem 

Rating: 4/5

How to get there

Emirates (www.emirates.com) flies directly to Hanoi, Vietnam, with fares starting from around Dh2,725 return, while Etihad (www.etihad.com) fares cost about Dh2,213 return with a stop. Chuong is 25 kilometres south of Hanoi.
 

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The specs

Engine: 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6

Power: 540hp at 6,500rpm

Torque: 600Nm at 2,500rpm

Transmission: Eight-speed auto

Kerb weight: 1580kg

Price: From Dh750k

On sale: via special order

Groom and Two Brides

Director: Elie Semaan

Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla

Rating: 3/5

The Details

Kabir Singh

Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series

Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa

Rating: 2.5/5 

The Indoor Cricket World Cup

When: September 16-23

Where: Insportz, Dubai

Indoor cricket World Cup:
Insportz, Dubai, September 16-23

UAE fixtures:
Men

Saturday, September 16 – 1.45pm, v New Zealand
Sunday, September 17 – 10.30am, v Australia; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Monday, September 18 – 2pm, v England; 7.15pm, v India
Tuesday, September 19 – 12.15pm, v Singapore; 5.30pm, v Sri Lanka
Thursday, September 21 – 2pm v Malaysia
Friday, September 22 – 3.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 3pm, grand final

Women
Saturday, September 16 – 5.15pm, v Australia
Sunday, September 17 – 2pm, v South Africa; 7.15pm, v New Zealand
Monday, September 18 – 5.30pm, v England
Tuesday, September 19 – 10.30am, v New Zealand; 3.45pm, v South Africa
Thursday, September 21 – 12.15pm, v Australia
Friday, September 22 – 1.30pm, semi-final
Saturday, September 23 – 1pm, grand final

How green is the expo nursery?

Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery

An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo

Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery

Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape

The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides

All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality

Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country

Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow

Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site

Green waste is recycled as compost

Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs

Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers

About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer

Main themes of expo is  ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.

Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months

Updated: February 20, 2025, 1:07 PM