Assad's Cousin Laments Family's Lost Grip on Feudal Power
The New Arab reports on Rami Makhlouf, Bashar al-Assad's estranged cousin, 'criticizing' an Alawite sheikh's call for federalism. Makhlouf, once Syria's undisputed economic kingpin—his fortune an estimated $10 billion (2019, Al-Jazeera )—now warns his community is going 'down a very dangerous path.' (Perhaps not as dangerous as the one Syrians faced when his family's regime bombed their cities
into dust.) This isn't a sudden concern for national unity; it's a squabble for power among the same elite who have ruled Syria for decades. Makhlouf's 'concern' for the Alawite minority he once economically exploited (or rather, extracted from) appears suspiciously timed with his own diminished influence. For decades, the Assads used Alawite solidarity to maintain their iron-fisted rule. Now,
even that facade crumbles, revealing the true prize: the dwindling scraps of a shattered nation. It makes one wonder: How much 'criticism' is allowed before you become the next target of your own family?