AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian tycoon Rami Makhlouf, a cousin and long-time ally of President Bashar al-Assad, appealed on Tuesday to his relative to stop what he described as security forces dismantling charities that served the poor among loyalists in Syria's civil war.
Rami Makhlouf, once widely considered part of the president’s inner circle and Syria's leading businessman, said in a Facebook post that a lifeline was being cut that supported thousands of war veterans and families of pro-Assad militia members backing the army in the decade-long conflict.