Saudi media has published another scandal linked to deposed Syrian dictator Bashar Assad. The Saudi magazine Al-Majalla revealed documents within the past day containing new details about the circumstances surrounding the death of Syrian adviser Luna al-Shibl in a car accident during summer 2024. At the center of the affair is the suspicion held by Quds Force commander in 2019, Qasem Soleimani, that she was a spy, and the assassination of senior Quds Force official Mohammad Reza Zahedi on April 1, 2024.
Al-Shibl was an adviser who accompanied Assad in footage published in recent days on the Saudi channel Al Arabiya, in which he mocked Syria, Syrians and even Russian President Vladimir Putin's plastic surgeries. The magazine also reported on the circumstances of the disappearance of al-Shibl's brother and his wife at the end of April 2024. An event that occurred after the Israeli strike on a building near the Iranian embassy in Damascus, in which Zahedi was killed – the Quds Force commander in Lebanon and Syria.
The documents include a transcript of a conversation between Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in 2020, and Ali Mamlouk, head of the national security apparatus in Assad's regime. According to the documents, the two held a brief conversation about al-Shibl, during which Soleimani explained why he believed she was a spy.
Al-Shibl, born in Damascus in 1974, came from a Druze family. Her mother raised her alone and worked in the Ba'ath Party (the ruling party in Syria). Al-Shibl later became active in the party's youth organization and integrated into the regime's media. Subsequently, al-Shibl moved to work for Al Jazeera and married a Lebanese journalist, through whom she obtained Lebanese citizenship. She later divorced him and married a Syrian citizen.
In 2008, al-Shibl met Syrian President Assad for the first time. According to various testimonies, the media figure developed a "special relationship" with him. Within two years, she moved to work for him. Initially, she worked in the office of the security apparatus headed by senior Syrian official Ali Mamlouk. In the previous decade, she was appointed head of Assad's media office.
According to Al-Majalla, as part of her role at the time, al-Shibl worked to push out the previous office head, Bouthaina Shaaban. A bitter rivalry developed between the two. Over the years, al-Shibl consolidated her influence and simultaneously developed a close relationship with the dictator's wife, Asma al-Assad.
Al-Shibl's power grew until she became a mediator on various issues. For example, she conducted lengthy meetings with the Hamas terror organization's political bureau chief at the time, Khaled Mashaal, before he left Damascus. Despite this, it was reported that Maher al-Assad, Bashar's brother and a Syrian general, never trusted her.
According to information obtained by Al-Majalla and sources who spoke with the magazine, Maher al-Assad warned Bashar against al-Shibl, as did Qasem Soleimani, who believed she was a spy. In a document revealed in the magazine, an exchange appeared between Soleimani and Mamlouk at the end of 2019. The conversation took place a few moments after al-Shibl left Mamlouk's office, when Soleimani had just arrived.
"Who is that?" Soleimani asked, according to the transcript. "Luna al-Shibl, the president's adviser," Mamlouk replied. "I know," Soleimani said, "but who is he really? Where does he work?" Mamlouk replied that at the Qatari network, Al Jazeera. According to Al-Majalla, the Quds Force commander at the time used masculine pronouns, as is customary in such contexts.
Soleimani then asked about al-Shibl's salary, and Mamlouk did not know how to respond. The Iranian official answered him himself, "I'll tell you – $10,000. And what is his salary today?"
Mamlouk again did not know how to respond, and Soleimani replied to him once more, "I'll tell you – half a million Syrian pounds. Does it make sense that he would give up $10,000 for half a million Syrian pounds? He's a spy." It should be noted that even today, the value of the Syrian currency is almost zero compared to the dollar.
Despite the warnings, Syrian President Assad only brought al-Shibl closer into his inner circle, appointing her as a special adviser. His wife, Asma, supported her and appointed her as a trustee of a private university.
However, in 2023, Asma began to distance herself from al-Shibl because of the earthquake in northwestern Syria, after which the wife requested that she serve as her adviser, instead of her husband's – a request that al-Shibl did not comply with. According to the publication, from that moment on, the adviser's influence waned. Her associates said she frequently expressed an aspiration, even obsessively, "to become Syria's first lady." When she learned that Asma al-Assad had fallen ill again with cancer, it was reported that she responded, "Inshallah, she will die."
At the beginning of 2024, additional signs emerged raising suspicion about her activities. For example, she purchased real estate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, worth eight million dollars. Two years earlier, she opened a Russian "luxury restaurant" in the al-Mazzeh neighborhood in Damascus, called Nash Krai. According to rumors, the restaurant was a gift from Assad himself.
Al-Shibl's assets abroad were registered under her sister-in-law, Nasrin Mohammad (she and her husband, Mulham, "disappeared" last year). Following these matters, Asma al-Assad began to suspect al-Shibl's unusual enrichment.
According to the Al-Majalla publication, Luna and her brother expressed great hostility toward Iran, Hezbollah, and members of the pro-Iranian axis. These statements raised accusations among Assad regime circles and Tehran's allies that al-Shibl was an "Israeli agent." Against the backdrop of the series of assassinations of senior Iranian and Lebanese officials in Damascus, these suspicions grew.
In July 2024, Luna al-Shibl was injured in a car accident while driving to her home in Syria. She was hospitalized, but died there. According to photos of the armored BMW in which she was traveling, only minor damage was caused to the vehicle.
Eyewitnesses told Al-Majalla that another vehicle hit her after the accident. According to testimonies, after her bodyguard exited, an unknown person approached the vehicle, struck al-Shibl on the head, and paralyzed her. This strengthened the magazine's suspicions that this was a political assassination.
The Syrian presidential office announced al-Shibl's death in a brief statement. A modest funeral was subsequently held, attended by several Syrian officials. Bashar Assad was absent. Before al-Shibl's death, her brother Mulham and his wife were arrested on April 26, several weeks after the assassination of senior Quds Force official Zahedi in Damascus.
According to Al-Majalla, in circles close to Iran in Damascus, they claimed they "worked for Israel," and were in contact with the Iranian delegation that was attacked as part of that assassination. Luna al-Shibl's brother did not appear again, and there is an assessment that the Assad regime operatives murdered him.
