Syria has acknowledged that its banks were holding funds of the former Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq.
| Comes as a surprise, huh? |
But the regime of President Bashar Assad has disputed the assertion by U.S. officials that Syria was harboring about $3 billion in Saddam funds. Instead, Syria has maintained that its Iraqi assets did not exceed $300 million.
| "The rest went for... ummm... things that were already on order. And expenses." |
| "Truly, it is our Bingo money. Allan (pbuh) smiled upon the cards last month." |
The Assad regime has frozen funds from the former Iraqi government, officials said. Dureid Dirgham, director of the Syrian Commercial Bank, said the Iraqi government deposited $216 million in the financial institution. "No former Iraqi officials have private accounts in this bank," Dirgham was quoted by the official Syrian News Agency as saying. |