{"id":42647,"date":"2020-05-17T16:23:37","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T16:23:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42647"},"modified":"2020-05-17T16:23:37","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T16:23:37","slug":"chinese-ambassador-to-israel-found-dead-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42647","title":{"rendered":"Chinese ambassador to Israel found dead at home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"57\">\n<p>\nDAMASCUS: Top Syria tycoon Rami Makhlouf on Sunday said the regime was piling pressure on him and threatening to arrest him and close his telecommunications empire unless he hands over profits.<br \/>Makhlouf, a first cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad, made the latest accusations against the Damascus government \u2014 the third since April \u2014 in a 16-minute Facebook video.<br \/>The head of Syria\u2019s largest mobile operator, Syriatel, has been embroiled in a power struggle with the Assad government since last summer when authorities seized his Al-Bustan charity and dissolved militias affiliated to him.<br \/>When the finance ministry in December froze the assets of several businessmen over tax evasion and illicit enrichment, the Syrian press said Makhlouf, his wife and companies were included.<br \/>On Sunday he said authorities are \u201cdemanding we forefeit our company\u2019s profits\u201d and hand over \u201c120 percent of the profits to the state or else we will be arrested.\u201d<br \/>Failure to comply, he said, will prompt authorities to revoke Syriatel\u2019s license.<br \/>At the end of April and again in early May, Makhlouf, who had kept a low profile throughout Syria\u2019s nine-year-war, posted online scathing attacks against authorities.<br \/>He said they were demanding $185 million in payments from Syriatel, urging Assad to intervene and reschedule the payment.<br \/>Makhlouf, who also has stakes in electricity, oil and real estate, has also accused security services of detaining employees to intimidate him into stepping down from his businesses.<br \/>According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, around 40 Syriatel employees and 19 from Al-Bustan have been arrested since April.<br \/>Condemning the arrests, Makhlouf claimed authorities would release the employees if he paid the $185 million and resigned as head of Syriatel.<br \/>Makhlouf said he would be willing to pay the amount demanded by authorities but the issue of his resignation was a red line.<br \/>\u201cWhoever thinks I will resign under these conditions, doesn\u2019t know me,\u201d he said.<br \/>Makhlouf has long been seen as a pillar of the Syrian regime since Assad rose to power in 2000, succeeding his father Hafez.<br \/>But rumors have swirled in recent months of souring ties between Makhlouf and Assad, who is spearheading an anti-graft campaign in a bid to shore up state finances.<br \/>In an interview with Syrian state TV in October, Assad said that he has \u201ccalled on everyone in the private sector who has squandered state funds to return the money.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DAMASCUS: Top Syria tycoon Rami Makhlouf on Sunday said the regime was piling pressure on him and threatening to arrest him and close his telecommunications empire unless he hands over profits.Makhlouf, a first cousin of Syrian President Bashar Assad, made the latest accusations against the Damascus government \u2014 the third since April \u2014 in a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}