By Kharon Staff
June 17, 2019
A Syrian petroleum company delivered fuel products imported from Europe through Turkey into areas of Idlib province controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Watad Petroleum is a fuel products company operating in Idlib that was founded in 2017. Idlib is one of the last opposition-held territories of Syria; clashes raged in early June between Russian-backed forces of Bashar al-Assad and militant groups. Millions have been trapped in the region and could flee after already being displaced from elsewhere in Syria, according to the United Nations. Parts of Idlib are administered by the Syrian Salvation Government, an opposition governing body controlled by HTS, which was sanctioned in May 2018 as an alias of al-Qaida’s Jabhat Fatah al-Sham.
Through the Syrian Salvation Government, HTS has generated revenue by charging residents for electricity and water, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Oil traders and activists cited in Syrian opposition media claim that Watad Petroleum is a part of HTS’ efforts to monopolize the oil trade in areas controlled by the Syrian Salvation Government.
Opposition sources told the Lebanese Al-Modon outlet in January that Watad Petroleum was also selling and exporting its products to the Syrian government, which is facing a fuel crisis due in part to sanctions against Iran and Syria.
Watad Petroleum signed two Memorandums of Understanding with the Syrian Salvation Government in March 2018, allowing the company to sell and distribute gas cylinders in areas it controls. Under the agreements, Watad Petroleum is also required to provide fuel to hospitals overseen by the Syrian Salvation Government’s health ministry.
The company posted a video on its YouTube channel a month after striking the deals showing its trucks delivering gas cylinders to the “main centers” of the Syrian Salvation Government.
Watad Petroleum first announced its imports of European fuel products in a video posted on its YouTube account in February 2018. In the video, tanker trucks of Turkey-domiciled companies can be seen entering Syria via the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, which is located between the cities of İskenderun and Aleppo, and controlled by HTS.
Throughout the first half of 2019, and as recently as early June, Watad Petroleum posted videos showing trucks from Turkish shipping and commercial companies delivering fuel products to Watad Petroleum’s facilities via the Bab al-Hawa crossing. In one video, posted April 17, Watad Petroleum announced the arrival of a “second batch of imported gasoline,” which it said would be distributed to markets in the “liberated north” of Syria. Another video, posted days later, announced the entry of gas products arriving at the border crossing and showed Turkish-registered trucks delivering fuel products at Watad Petroleum facilities in Syria.
On May 16, Watad Petroleum posted a picture to its Telegram account announcing that the company had received “quantities of imported petrol and diesel.” The photo shows Turkish-registered trucks and logistics companies delivering fuel to Watad Petroleum.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) directed its local partners to cease all use of the Bab al-Hawa crossing in March 2018 because terrorist organizations, including HTS, “may financially benefit from any aid passing through the Bab Al-Hawa crossing.”
Watad Petroleum also partnered with the Kuwait-based Ayatt Charity Association in March 2018 to distribute gas cylinders in southern Aleppo. Ayatt Charity Association is managed by Abd al-Muhsin Zabin Mutib Naif al-Mutayri, an al-Nusra Front fundraiser who was sanctioned by the Treasury in May 2016. Al-Nusra Front, now known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, was a founding member of HTS. An HTS leader and former al-Qaida fighter has vowed to conquer Damascus and impose Islamic rule across Syria.
Analysts from the Counterterrorism/Middle East team contributed to this report.
