IRAN LINKED TO NEW SYRIA TELECOM COMPANY, INVESTIGATION FINDS

Thu 15 December 2022:

A new Syrian telecommunications company could be indirectly tied to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a probe has found.

A joint investigation by the NGOs the Organised Crime and Corruption and Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks, found that Wafa Telecom has concerning links to the IRGC primarily through a number of the new telecom provider’s investors.

Having been granted a license by the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad in February, despite being founded in 2017, Wafa Telecom reportedly aims to improve cellular networks in Syria following the effects of the ongoing civil war.

According to the investigative report, a 52 per cent stake in Wafa was held by the Arabian Business Company (ABC), which was listed as a Syrian ‘national company’ without any open links to Iran or its forces. ABC was, however, registered in the Damascus Free Trade Zone in October 2019, meaning it was not subject to adequate disclosure requirements.

Until 2019, key shareholders in ABC included a Syrian businessman and the Malaysian company Tioman Golden Treasure, which at that time was 99 per cent owned by a US-sanctioned individual named Azim Monzavi, a man described by Washington as “an IRGC official who facilitates oil sales on behalf of the IRGC”.

Tioman Golden Treasure – now mostly owned by another Iranian investor who Monzavi transferred his stake to – currently partially owns ABC, with two of its Malaysian corporate officers also revealed to have connections to sanctioned companies that were found to have supported the IRGC in previous years.

According to an anonymous Syrian businessman and a former regime official with direct knowledge of the sector, who both spoke to OCCRP in the report, Iran’s involvement in Wafa Telecom is so extensive that it literally constitutes “a partnership between the Syrian government and the Revolutionary Guard [IRGC].”

Iran has backed the Assad regime throughout the ongoing 11-year-long civil war with tens of billions of dollars and directly assisted it with its proxy militias against Syrian opposition forces.

Tehran has previously made it clear to Damascus that it expects repayments to be made, especially following the Syrian regime’s recapture of most of the country through Iranian and Russian assistance. The opening of IRGC-controlled firms with the aim of monopolising Syrian markets and industries – while not being publicly disclosed as such in order to avoid international sanctions – is seen as one potential form of repayment.

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