In a move ripe with hypocrisy, the allegedly pro-human rights United Nations has been awarding contracts to individuals and organizations with ties to the Assad regime in Syria.
According to Bloomberg:
The United Nations paid at least $18 million last year to companies with close ties to Bashar al-Assad, some of them run by cronies of the Syrian president who are on U.S. and European Union blacklists.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is perhaps most famous for his part in an ongoing civil war that has killed over 400,000 of his own people and displaced millions more. The dictator has shown he's not above gassing children and killing as many innocent civilians as he feels necessary.
Still, Assad's blatant human rights violations haven't stopped the UN from handing over buckets of cash to Assad-linked persons and companies -- and even some of Assad's own family members.
"Contracts for telecommunications and security were awarded to regime insiders including Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s cousin. UN staff ran up a $9.5 million bill at the Four Seasons hotel in Damascus, co-owned by Syria’s tourism ministry, according to the UN’s annual report on procurement for 2016, a 739-page document published in June. Some UN money even went to a charity set up by the president’s wife."
The United States, as well as many other nations including both Western and Arab nations, have spoken out against the countless atrocities committed by the regime, while Russia has used its veto vote in the UN Security Council to prevent any action against Syria for its actions. The United States even bombed a military base in Syria earlier this year in response to a second chemical weapons attack committed by the Assad against innocent men women and children.
Even the UN itself has verbally condemned the heinous actions of the Assad regime, yet seem to have no problem rewarding it financially.
Kathleen Fallon, a spokesperson for the Syria Campaign, an independent advocacy group, had this to say about the United Nations' spending in Syria:
Any money going to Assad and his allies shows that the UN is not impartial but is in fact helping the largest player in the conflict. The regime has been responsible for the majority of the deaths, and they are being rewarded. It sends the wrong message.’’
In response to accusations, the UN claim that they stay in hotels owned by the Syrian regime's allies because they are cleared for security reasons and that they "source locally," pointing to the fact that the Four Seasons is co-owned by a Saudi prince.