Enab Baladi – Jana al-Issa

The killing of Syrian businessman Baraa Ahmed Qaterji, one of the most prominent war profiteers, has raised questions about who benefited from his death, with many experts doubting that Israel was behind his assassination.

Reuters news agency, citing three unnamed security sources, reported that Baraa Qaterji was killed by an Israeli airstrike near the Syrian-Lebanese border, while there has been no official Israeli comment, with Israeli media reporting the news from other agencies.

The Syrian regime also did not comment officially on Qaterji’s killing. Local media close to the regime reported that a car was targeted on the Damascus-Beirut highway at the beginning of the al-Sabboura road, likely due to an “Israeli attack,” causing the car to be completely burned and resulting in casualties inside it.

Despite the absence of official mourning or comments for Baraa Qaterji, the Qaterji Group Holding posted on its Facebook account on the first day of the family’s mourning in Aleppo province that Aleppo Governor Hussein Diab offered his condolences to the Qaterji family on behalf of the Syrian regime’s president, Bashar al-Assad.

The Qaterji family is considered among the war-rich who are close to the Syrian regime, which allowed the family’s influence to expand and enhance its presence in the country’s economy in recent years.

The regime is “the prime suspect”

Many observers have doubted Israel’s responsibility for Baraa Qaterji’s death, leaving fingers pointed at the Syrian regime. This is based on several factors related to the disappearance of several economic fronts that were close to the regime, including Khodr Ali Taher, Yassar Ibrahim, Asma al-Assad, and Luna al-Shibl recently.

Ayman al-Dusouki, a Syrian researcher specializing in local administration and political economy at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, confirmed that there is conflicting information about Baraa Qaterji’s killing, with claims of an Israeli attack or his death by an explosive device.

Al-Dusouki told Enab Baladi that although Israel has an interest in eliminating him due to his links with Iran and its networks and regional arms, he leans towards the hypothesis of the Syrian regime assassinating him, supported by several indicators.

He considers the targeting of Qaterji in an area under the control of the Fourth Division, as well as Israel’s pattern of targeting Iran’s leaders and its military and security arms more than its economic ones in Syria, to support the hypothesis of his targeting by the regime.

Al-Dusouki believes that the expansion of Qaterji’s network of relations with Iran and Hezbollah, transforming him from a local to a regional player, and rumors about the regime discovering Qaterji smuggling part of his money abroad, led the regime to eliminate him as a message to the business community.

The message, according to the researcher, is the necessity to operate within the lines defined by the regime and not to cross them, as well as the potential to use this event to send messages abroad, such as to Saudi Arabia, which placed Qaterji on its sanctions list, indicating the regime’s seriousness in dealing positively with issues affecting its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

In June 2022, the Saudi Presidency of State Security included Baraa and Hussam Qaterji and their company, which facilitated fuel trade for the Islamic State organization, on its terrorism lists, accusing the company of collaborating with “terrorist” organizations like the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Impact on the family’s business

The name of the Qaterji family has topped the list of war profiteers during the recent years of the war in Syria, after secret dealings with the Islamic State organization on one side and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on the other, all in favor of the Syrian regime.

Who manages the family business?

Husssam Ahmed Rushdi Qaterji, born in Raqqa in 1982 to a family originally from al-Bab city in Aleppo province, is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Qaterji International Group, which includes many companies specializing in various fields, according to a 2020 report by the Pro Justice organization, which specializes in prosecuting war criminals.

Hussam lives in Damascus and is considered one of the most regime-supportive businessmen and uses his relatives as business fronts within his subsidiary companies owned by him and his brothers Mohammad Baraa and Mohammad Agha Qaterji.

Hussam Qaterji appears publicly and manages Qaterji International Group openly, while Baraa Qaterji managed affairs secretly for the regime.

Researcher Ayman al-Dusouki believes that the Qaterji family has considerable investments within Syria, noting that Baraa Qaterji’s death has an impact on the family, which he currently views as focusing on recalculating and reassessing their relationships, creating gaps that their competitors could exploit, in his opinion.

Karam Shaar, director of the Syrian program at the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks and a doctor in economics, told Enab Baladi that the impact of Baraa Qaterji’s killing on the family’s activities depends on who is behind his death.

Shaar said that if Israel is responsible, the family’s business will not stop, as his functional role could easily be replaced by another family member due to the clan nature of their work.

However, if his assassination is related to conflicts within the Syrian regime, Shaar sees that it could be interpreted by the family as a message to cease their economic activities, potentially leading to the family’s overall withdrawal from these activities.

Following the start of the conflict in Syria, the Syrian regime relied on names that suddenly appeared in the economic world, with no history in economic or financial work, taking economic positions and activities historically associated with the Assad family’s domains, according to a study by the Harmoon Center for Contemporary Studies at the end of May 2022.

Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad, managed the family’s activities as a partner and custodian of its businesses. Parallel changes in the war economy and external sanctions led to the emergence of new war profiteers, along with remnants of the old elite functioning in the country to form economic fronts for the family, according to the study.

The rise of the Qaterji family began after the silent withdrawal of George Haswani, the owner of HESCO natural gas company, following European sanctions, making way for Hussam Qaterji and his brothers to dominate the oil transportation sector from territories previously held by the Islamic State organization and currently held by the SDF.

The family’s influence on the sector grew by forming a militia that fought alongside regime forces with the primary goal of protecting their commercial convoys. Then, in 2018, the Qaterji brothers (Hussam, Mohammad Baraa, Ahmed Bashir) established Arfada Petroleum Company, which acquired 80% of two companies founded to build two oil refineries that have yet to start operations despite receiving approval since 2020.

In late 2022, it was announced the establishment of BS Oil Services, based in Lebanon, a subsidiary of the Qaterji Group, allowing the company’s fuel stations to import crude oil and refine it in the Baniyas and Homs refineries in exchange for fees paid to the government, and granting the company the right to sell the resulting oil derivatives in the local market or export them abroad.

Economic fronts exiting the scene

Qaterji’s killing comes at a time that saw the disappearance of several prominent public names in the economic fronts created by the Syrian regime over the past years.

Early this year, many media sources reported the regime’s arrest of Syrian businessman Khodr Ali Taher (Abu Ali Khodr), who was directly linked to the presidential palace. Additionally, websites circulated news about presidential economic advisor Yassar Ibrahim suffering from severe chemical poisoning that caused most of his internal organs to fail.

The Syrian Presidency also officially announced that Asma al-Assad would be absent from direct work and participation in activities as part of her treatment plan after announcing her leukemia in late May.

With the death of Bashar al-Assad’s media advisor, Luna al-Shibl, on July 5, four people are now absent from the secret economic council that Asma al-Assad led: Asma, Luna, Khodr Ali Taher, and Yassar Ibrahim.

A report published by the British newspaper, Financial Times, revealed that Asma al-Assad heads the Syrian regime’s secret economic council, working with the participation of businessmen and people close to the regime, according to interviews the newspaper conducted with 18 individuals familiar with the regime’s operations, including company heads, relief workers, and former government officials.

The report mentioned that Asma al-Assad’s economic relationship network included many names, including Yassar Ibrahim, Fares Kallas, Secretary-General of Syria Trust For Development, media advisor to the regime’s president, Luna al-Shibl, Syrian businessman Khodr Ali Taher, in addition to Lina Kinayeh who previously headed Asma al-Assad’s office, and Dana Bakhour, who appeared during al-Assad’s recent visit to the UAE.

Researcher in political economy Ayman al-Dusouki told Enab Baladi that the current actions of the regime are aimed at regulating and re-forming the business community to align with the needs of the upcoming phase of economic recovery and international openness, which is part of a broader context related to the authoritative modernization process carried out by the regime to ensure its survival.

Al-Dusouki believes that the regime still holds the reins of control and has previously changed many economic fronts without affecting its approach, plans, and efforts to dominate and ensure its survival.

Baraa Qaterji: Islamic State broker sanctioned by the US

Mohammad Baraa Ahmed Rushdi Qaterji, known as Baraa Qaterji, was born in Raqqa in 1976, with origins tracing back to al-Bab in eastern Aleppo countryside.

Baraa is a founding partner in several companies, most notably the Qaterji International Group, which includes several companies such as Qaterji for Mechanical Engineering Industries and Arfada Petroleum, according to the Pro Justice website.

Baraa Qaterji and his brothers Hussam and Mohammad Agha formed an armed militia known as the Qaterji Group, primarily based in Aleppo province, participating in military operations that led to the siege of Aleppo’s eastern neighborhoods at the end of 2016, which resulted in the killing and displacement of thousands of Syrians to Idlib and northern Aleppo countryside, with the militia involved in numerous crimes against the Syrian people.

Baraa Qaterji was linked to financial and administrative corruption networks at all levels of state administration up to the presidential palace, helping him reach directly to the corruption networks of Bashar al-Assad and businessman Rami Makhlouf, who contributed to expanding Qaterji’s business.

The true start of the Qaterji Group came after the Syrian regime lost Raqqa province to the former Free Syrian Army (FSA) in 2011, and later to the Islamic State organization. Baraa Qaterji was the largest broker in oil, wheat, and weapons deals between the Syrian regime, the Islamic State, and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to the site.

He benefited from his long-established connections in Raqqa and its surroundings to implement plans to bring oil and wheat from areas controlled by the SDF and the Islamic State to regime-controlled areas, as well as transport weapons in the opposite direction to those areas.

In 2018, he was listed under US sanctions. The US Treasury Department stated that Baraa Qaterji played the role of mediator between the Syrian regime and the Islamic State in oil deals, noting that his licensed oil company in Syrian records also transported oil shipments between the two sides, as well as supplying the regime with fuel and arms shipments.