Syrian tycoon and former senior Assad regime official Firas Tlass has reported claims from regime insiders of tensions between Syria’s dictator Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asmaa, which the insiders say are difficult to “patch up.”

Tlass, the son of former Assad regime defence minister Mustafa Tlass, who now lives in exile in Europe, asked in a post on Facebook: “Will the Russians intervene to control things? I don’t know".

In a recent post, Tlass reported that Faris Kalass, the head of Bashar al-Assad’s personal office, and Lina Kanaya, the head of the follow-up committee at the Republican Palace, have been receiving contradictory instructions from Assad and his wife, which have reached a stage where the obvious tensions are difficult to resolve.

Syrian political insiders have recently indicated that Asmaa Al-Assad is playing an increasingly influential role in the presidential palace with external support in an effort to fully control the direction of Syrian state affairs. In related news, Syrian opposition figure, Yahya Al-Areedh, recently claimed that British intelligence services are supporting Asmaa, whose parents live in London where she was born and raised, to expand her influence over the running of Syria.

Some observers believe that Asmaa al-Assad aspires to taking over from her husband as president, while others insist that she is uninterested in the presidency, but insists on having the final word in policy decisions and wielding absolute power from behind the scenes.

Original report from Hadi Abullah (in Arabic): https://hadiabdullah.net/2020/12/01/%d9%85%d8%b5%d8%a7%d8%af%d8%b1-%d8%a...