For 5 decades, the Shalish family maintained an active presence in the structure of the Syrian authority, taking advantage of the close lineage of the lineage that the Assad family gathered, where the political and security influence of the family was closely linked to the marriage of its founder, Salman Shalish from Hasiba Ali Suleiman Al -Assad, the sister of Hafez al -Assad, which established its position within the solid nucleus of the regime.
The origins of the Shalish family go back to the city of Qirdaha, the birthplace of the Assad family in Lattakia Governorate, and among the members of this family, each of the Major General Dhul Halish and his brother, Major General Riyad Shalish, who played a major role in the shadow of the authority of their uncle Hafez al -Assad and their cousin Bashar, was distinguished by their prominent appearance in the institutions of the regime, and after them the sons of their brother Isa came and ruled.
Dhul Himma Founder of the Family Mafia
Zuhair Salman Shalish, known as “Dhul Himma Shalish”, was born in the town of Qirdaha in 1956, and the Shalish family formed through the influence of Dhul Himma, one of the pillars of the power and influence network, parallel to the influence of the Makhlouf family whose rise was associated with its location as an uncle to Bashar al -Assad.
Dhul Himma Shalish has emerged in the Syrian security and political scene after his appointment as an official for the special guard of his uncle Hafez al -Assad, to succeed Palestinian Brigadier Khaled Al -Hussein, who was exempt from his position in the wake of the death of Basil al -Assad in 1994 in a mysterious car accident, according to the official account at the time.
Shalish continued to perform his security duties even after the authority moved to Bashar al -Assad, and he remained in his position until his dismissal in 2019, which ended decades of his direct association with the highest levels of power.
In addition to his security role, where he established the company “Cis International”, which is active in the fields of construction and import of cars, and he has accumulated a great wealth by entering into major infrastructure projects and general contracting, which was often with external funding from Arab and foreign countries.
His companies were playing a pivotal role in implementing road projects and oil companies, especially in the north and east of the country, where Dhul -Hami, in cooperation with some other businessmen, dominated the largest tenders and contracts in the road and oil sectors, and their dominance was almost absolute in this field during the first years of Bashar al -Assad.
According to the Syrian Committee for Human Rights, in its follow -up to the march of Shalish, he expanded his influence in the auto trade sector to include a large number of auto shows and agencies located on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus, especially on the international road leading to Homs, and in the vicinity of the city of Harasta in Damascus countryside.
This commercial network, which included hundreds of employees, was working under its direct supervision, most of which consisted of members of his family and his loyalists from the Alawites, which reflects a pattern of employment based on family and sectarian loyalty.
The bias of Iranian influence
With the outbreak of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, Dhul Halish appeared as one of the main actors in the repression that targeted the popular movement. On June 24 of the same year, the European Union included his name on the sanctions list.
The United States followed it later; Accusing him of direct involvement in the bloody repression of the demonstrators, as well as his prominent role in financing and organizing the “Shabiha” militias, which played a pivotal role in intimidation and killings.
But in the aftermath of the direct Russian military intervention in Syria in 2015, along with the regime of Bashar al -Assad, the features of a division within the security elite close to it became clear, where the mile of the vigor has emerged towards the alliance with the Iranian side, a trend in which Maher al -Assad participated, the brother of the deposed president and the leader of the fourth division.
However, this bias did not pass without consequences, as Russia began in late June 2019, according to reports, to restrict Shalish, in the context of opening files related to suspicions of corruption and smuggling.
Media sources close to the regime indicated that these files included smuggling hard currency, illegal trafficking in antiquities, and selling weapons to armed factions in areas such as Eastern Ghouta and Lattakia countryside, in a period in which the balance of influence between Moscow and Tehran was a dispute within the structure of the regime.
According to a source described as close to Russia to the local press, Shalish was involved in the beginning of that year with the smuggling of a client belonging to an intelligence agency – whose name was not mentioned – in coordination with Iranian officials, after he learned of Russia’s structure to arrest him.
The stage of decline and isolation
The same source stated that Russian units, in cooperation with the security office in the Republican Palace, arrested a number of those close to Shalish and workers under his administration inside Damascus and Lattakia, and they were transferred to one of the Syrian intelligence branches for investigation, which was considered an indication of the beginning of reducing his security and financial role, and sending a strict message from Moscow on the borders of the regional alliances of Damascus.
Investigations included large -scale corruption files, including suspicions surrounding the “Marotta City” project in Damascus, which was supervised by Riad, the brother of Dhul Halish, through the military housing institution that has already turned into an economic arm of the Shalish family during the past decades.
Against the background of these developments, a decision was issued by the head of the regime to isolate Dhul Halish from his security positions, and it was reported at the time that he was placed under house arrest in his home located in Al -Maliki neighborhood in Damascus, and since the mid -2020, Dhul -Huma has been completely absent from the square, which sparked a series of speculation about his fate.
But on May 14, 2022, Dhul Halish’s death was announced in Al -Razi Hospital in the capital, Damascus, and the next day was made in his hometown in the town of Qirdaha in Lattakia countryside, amid weightings from some of the followers of the Syrian affairs at the time that he had been liquidated in his greed in his financial wealth, which was estimated at one billion dollars.
Riyad Emperor of Military Housing
Riyad Shalish, who reached the rank of Talia, comes in terms of position and importance in the Shalish family, and was one of the most prominent figures associated with economic and military influence institutions and corruption networks within the structure of the Syrian regime.
His role emerged in the late seventies of the last century when he was chosen by Rifaat al -Assad, the brother of Hafez, to take over the management of the Defense Brigades Housing Corporation, which was established specifically to secure construction projects for the defense companies, where Shalish assumed this position with the rank of colonel, at a time when the defense companies had almost complete financial independence, and its budget was comparable to the budget of the Syrian state at the time.
During that period, with the escalation of Rifaat al -Assad’s influence, especially after 1982, the defense companies were practicing field dominance on many public and private resources, and were widely accused of seizing the mechanisms and equipment owned by the state and citizens, which allowed its leaders – including Riyad Shalish – great opportunities to expand their economic influence.
Calish was attributed to the supervision of a number of major projects in the vicinity of the capital, Damascus, among them the Alsumaria residential project, as well as acquisitions of lands that were later used to build residential gatherings, including Al -Mazzeh 86, which over time turned into one of the most prominent strongholds of the forces loyal to the regime, and witnessed an organized settlement for the people of the Alawite community with direct support from Shalish by providing basic building materials.
From housing to broader economic influence
But in the middle of 1984, against the background of the conflict that broke out between Hafez al -Assad and his brother Rifaat, Riad Shalish was removed from his position at the Defense Brigades Housing Foundation, which he had headed after his promotion to the rank of Dean, and the administration of the Foundation was then entrusted to another officer who was affiliated with the security department close to Hafez al -Assad, and with this change the organization was restructured and called the unit. 481 “As part of the previous re -control plan, the previous Rifaat institutions.
Riyad Shalish remained far from the circle of action for several years, as he was attached to the Military Housing Corporation that was led by Major General Khalil Bahloul, without being assigned an actual executive role, but his influence returned to the forefront later, as Shalish took over the management of the institution after Bahloul, to start a new stage of economic and administrative expansion within state institutions.
Under the administration of Shalish, the Military Construction Corporation supervised the construction of many major urban projects, including the Harasta residential suburb in Damascus and the Al -Walid suburb in Homs, and in a later period, Riyad Shalish moved to the city of Homs, where he was established in conjunction with his brother who has a private communication company, and they joined together to win the contracts of government tenders, which enabled them to collect huge wealth.
According to a report by the local newspaper, the two brothers took advantage of their website to manipulate supply files and government projects, and looted central economic institutions such as the “Imran Foundation” specialized in distributing building materials and government cement laboratories, and they also participated in the seizure of the iron that the customs confiscated, which established their presence as economic actors dominating the joints of the public economy in the pre -Syrian revolution.
After the death of his older and most influential brother in 2022, Riad became the main character in the family, taking advantage of the relationship of kinship with Bashar al -Assad and his economic influence, where his wealth was estimated at more than one billion dollars, with his control of facilities in Homs and Lattakia, but with the fall of the regime, there was reports that he with many members of his family fled to Lebanon.
Firas and Isfa Issa Shalish
Firas Issa Shalish of the new generation of the Shalish family was born in 1976. According to the scarce information about him, his uncle, who is vigor, participated in establishing a telecommunications company in Homs in 1998, where the company managed a special center for external communications, and took control of tens of thousands of phone lines, which allowed her to earn millions of dollars, and according to circulating accusations, this caused damage to the Syrian public treasury.
The “Open Sancons” database, an international platform for documenting sanctions and personalities associated with corruption, states that after entering the cell phone network to central Syria, a dispute arose between Firas Shalish and Rami Makhlouf, who took control of the mobile phone network in the country, and Bashar al -Assad took a supportive position to his cousin Rami, which prompted Firas to escape to Cyprus, and from there he invested the money he was accused of stealing in many projects According to unofficial reports.
As for Asif Issa Shalish, the brother of Firas, he was born in 1959, and the name of Asif has emerged in 2005 when the US Treasury included him on the list of sanctions alongside his uncle, who is vigor, on charges of violating the sanctions imposed on Iraq, where Washington accused the company “Cis International”, which was run by Asif Shalish of buying goods related to defense activities in favor of the former Iraqi regime, in violation of the sanctions International imposed at the time.
The company “Cis International” was considered an economic interface for the Shalish family, as it has been active in the fields of construction and import of cars, and according to media reports, the company was used as a tool to overcome international sanctions, by issuing fake final user certificates for foreign suppliers, which allowed the pass equipment to Iraq via Syria.
In addition, Asif Shalish’s name was mentioned in reports related to the smuggling of Iraqi oil to Syria, which were part of a broader network of operations that Washington considered illegal, and these activities contributed to strengthening the economic influence of the Shalish family inside Syria, especially in light of the strong relationship that it linked to the Assad family in the first decade of this century.
Detailed information is not available on the current role of Asif Shalish, and it seems that it is preferable to stay away from the limelight, especially after the death of his uncle, who is vigor Shalish in 2022, then after Bashar al -Assad and his regime fell in December 2024.
Ali Mualla and Sakhr Shalish
On August 7, 2019, the newspapers loyal to the Assad regime, Ali Mualla Issa Shalish, mourned when he was killed in one of the battles that took place in the Hama countryside.
According to the obituary statement, Ali Mualla was 60 years old, and he was buried the next day in Qirdaha, and his military ranks were not clear, which concluded that he was one of the leaders of the Shabiha organizations that he participated in establishing and establishing his uncle, who is vigor Shalish since the beginning of the Syrian revolution.
For his part, Sakhr Hikmat Shalish, like his uncle, has a vigor and Riyadh in the Syrian army, until he reached the rank of colonel in 2015. Hikmat, Abu Sakhr, did not play, like his two brothers, any influential roles in Syria, but his son Sakhr followed the path of his uncles in military activity.
Although the information available about him is limited, his association with the family, which played a pivotal role in the Syrian regime, indicates his position inside the military and security circles, but in 2015 it was reported that he was killed in military clashes without official confirmation.
(Tagstotranslate) Politics (T) Syria (T) Arabic