Firas Tlass
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Rania Al-Jabiri(m. 1984; div. 2012)
- Lubna Alsoufi
Firas Tlass | |
|---|---|
فِرَاس طَلَاس | |
| Born | Firas Mustafa Tlass 20 August 1960 |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1980s – present |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 5 |
| Parent | Mustafa Tlass (father) |
| Relatives | Manaf Tlass (brother) |
Firas Tlass (Arabic: فِرَاس طَلَاس, romanized: Firās Ṭalās; born 20 August 1960) is a Syrian businessman and a member of a Sunni family close to former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad who defected to the rebels during the Syrian Civil War.
Firas Tlass was born in Damascus on 20 August 1960.[1] He is the second eldest child of Mustafa Tlass, a former Syrian Minister of Defense from 1972 to 2004[1][2] of Circassian and Turkish origin.[3] Next to the Assad clan, his family was the most famous Sunni family in Syria, known for supporting the government.[4] On the other hand, the members of his family worked for the Ottoman suzerains as well as French occupiers after the First World War.[5] Manaf Tlass, who was a senior military official and defected in July 2012, is his younger brother.[4]
He attended Ecole Laique in Damascus, graduating in 1978. He studied business administration at Damascus University, graduating with a bachelor of arts degree in economy in 1984. He went to France to study French and obtained a degree in commerce from Paris.[1]
Career
Tlass is described as a business tycoon[6] and Syria's sugar king.[7] He was one of the richest men in Syria.[4] Tlass was a significant supporter and beneficiary of Bashar al-Assad's liberal economy policies.[8][9]
Tlass founded Min Ajl Suriyya (MAS) (“For Syria” in English) in 1984. MAS engages in commercial ventures ranging from roasting coffee beans to producing metal, canned food, and dairy products.[1][10] In 2004, Tlass also began to provide financial assistance to the website Syria News that was owned by the Syrian Economic Center (SEC).[9] In 2010, he launched EFG Hermes Syria with EFG Hermes, the leading Egyptian investment bank in the Arab world.[11] It was reported that EFG Hermes Syria was a partnership between EFG Hermes (70%) and Firas Tlass (30%).[12][13] Tlass became the chairman of the firm.[13] Additionally, Tlass was the local joint venture partner for French cement company Lafarge.[11] He is also Chairman of Palmyra-SODIC.[14] His other business activity is the Palmyra real estate development company, of which he is the general manager.[15]
Since 1999 Tlass has done business with Iraq and collaborated in joint commercial and industrial projects with Syria and Iraq.
Tlass is a former member of the Ba'ath Party.[16] However, in 2005, he and another Baath member, Abdel Nour, argued that they supported multi-party elections and ending the Baath monopoly on power in Syria.[16] Firas Tlass also said that the relations with the US should be better.[16] In 2012, the New York Times reported that Firas and his brother, Brigadier General Manaf Tlass had defected.[17] They were regarded by Bashar al-Assad as peers and friends.[18]
Controversy
From 2012 to 2014, Lafarge's factory in Jalabiya, northern Syria, continued operating throughout the war. Factory chief Bruno Pescheux said Lafarge paid up to $100,000 a month to Tlass, a minority shareholder who allegedly paid armed factions to keep the factory open.[19] In April 2026, he was sentenced in absentia by a French tribunal to seven years in prison,[20] 225,000 euros and banned from entering France for his role in the Lafarge scandal.[21][better source needed]