UN Hires Assad's Friends and Relatives for Syria Relief Operation

"The UN has hired scores of friends and political associates of Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, as part of its relief operation in the country, according to documents leaked to the Guardian.

The staff lists show that relatives of high-ranking ministers have been on the Damascus payroll of UN agencies, including the refugee agency UNHCR and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

One former UN manager told the Guardian that every UN agency had at least 'one person who is a direct relative of a Syrian official'...

[T]he Syria Campaign, an independent advocacy group, said it was 'utterly unconscionable that [a UN] agency dedicated to supporting refugees would employ close relatives of Assad's inner circle'.

The UN says it has been delivering aid to 13.5 million Syrians in difficult and dangerous circumstances, but accepts that it is constrained by the Syrian government, which only allows the organisation to work with certain Damascus-approved partners.

According to documents seen by the Guardian, almost two-thirds of the emergency health supplies needed in Syria have gone to government-held areas.

They show that 64% of the kits and medicines provided by the WHO since January have been delivered to areas held by or supporting Assad.

Only 13% of WHO supplies have reached Syria's 'besieged' areas, most of which are controlled by forces opposed to the regime..."