A defector from the Syrian MOD tells Channel 4 News that the country’s spending on defence has surged since the uprising – and alleges that the answer could be turning to Iran for financial help.
Mahmoud Haj Hamad was a money man. As the main auditor for the Syrian Ministry of Defence, he knew who was paid how much and for what. Now he’s amongst the growing number of defectors who feel they cannot continue to work for President Bashar al-Assad, and have fled to the Egyptian capital, Cairo.
It was the growing defence ministry budget that did it. Speaking to a Channel 4 News producer in Cairo today, he said that the young men known as “shabiha” who act as President Assad’s enforcers are paid the equivalent of US$100 a day.
“They bring these shabiha from the countryside,” he said. “In the city they need to be housed, and given food and phones. They’re criminals and drug dealers – small agents for the big merchants, the Syrian security services. Before, they used to work for them and split the profits. Now they have a new job, to suppress demonstrators and terrorise civilians.”
He said that MoD expenditure had increased so much that all other ministries had been forced to take a 30 per cent cut. The minister of finance, apparently, was not a happy man.
The answer the government came up with, he alleged, was to turn to Syria’s best friend, Iran. “The general state budget couldn’t cover the expenditure, so planeloads of money were coming in from Iran,” he said. “In addition there is military support.”
For months, there have been rumours of Iranian Revolutionary Guard providing backing for Syrian troops. Mr Hamad said he had seen Iranian snipers in security offices. “There were expenses for them under the heading ‘experts’. Delegations of experts? These are no experts! They were snipers and killers!”
He heard these men speaking Farsi, he said. It’s no surprise that the Iranian government is helping its best Arab friend, the government of Syria. President Bashar al-Assad has always said it’s the opposition, not him, who is getting help from foreign countries. But Mr Hamad’s story suggests otherwise.
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