Assad resorts to sex tapes and Syrian spies

Syria’s embattled president has threatened to publicise sex tapes allegedly involving oil-rich Gulf rulers if they keep pressing him to relinquish power.

Bashar al-Assad’s media adviser, Buthaina Shabaan, yesterday warned that “officials from Gulf countries would be shown what trump cards we have after we release their sex tapes to internet websites”, the Kuwait Times reported.

Such videos, if they exist, are likely to have been shot in Beirut, a favoured playground for wealthy Gulf Arabs. The Lebanese capital hosts many Syrian prostitutes, who are said to be preferred by Gulf visitors to the east European call-girls who festoon the hotel lobbies of the less austere Gulf states.

They can earn additional easy money by passing on information of their assignations to Syria’s secret services, experts said.

The Arab League has suspended Syria for its bloody crackdown against anti-Assad protesters. Saudi Arabia warned this week that Arab states would not sit on the sidelines and allow the “massacre” of the Syrian people.