Two days ago, Assad appointed his maternal cousin Nameer Habib Makhlouf as the governor of Sweida—the governorate that has given him so much headache recently. 

Source

This is how the two are related, according to our sources in Observatory of Political and Economic Networks (OPEN).

Nameer is the former head of the Syrian Crude Oil Transportation Company (SCOT), which was sanctioned by the US in 2011.

Nameer himself should be sanctioned next.