Report: Foreign aid lost in Syria exchange rate distortions

Exchange rate distortions in war-torn Syria have allowed the government of President Bashar Assad to benefit from at least $100 million of international aid to its coffers

BEIRUT -- Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government benefited from variations in foreign currency exchange rates, boosting state coffers with at least $100 million in international aid money over the last two years, according to new research.

The currency manipulation deprives Syrians, most of them impoverished after a decade of war, of much needed funds. It also allows the Damascus government to circumvent sanctions enforced by Western countries that hold it responsible for most of the war’s atrocities.

“Western countries, despite sanctioning Syrian President Bashar Assad, have become one of the regime’s largest sources of hard currency,” said the report published this week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research organization that focuses on international public policy issues.

“Assad does not merely profit from the crisis he has created,” the report added. "He has created a system that rewards him more the worse things get.”