Fawaz Zureikat

Who is Fawaz Zureikat?

Fawaz Abdullah Zureikat or Zuraiqat or Zurayqat and variations is a wealthy Jordanian businessman.

Zureikat was implicated in the United Nations Oil for Food scandal relating to corruption surrounding Iraq's oil exports. In the 2004 Duelfer Report Zureikat is identified as receiving oil allocations from Iraq via Middle East Semi Conductors Co. In other documents, another company - Aredio Petroleum - is also linked to Zureikat. He had been doing business in Iraq since 1986, and his brother Hatem has been a political prisoner in Syria since 1981 who once shared a cell with Tariq Aziz.

He donated several hundred thousand pounds to George Galloway's Mariam Appeal campaign.

For a time he was station manager of Arab Television, a short-lived English-language satellite channel with offices in London and Baghdad which filmed and distributed the worldwide rights to the pre-Iraq war interview conducted in Baghdad between Tony Benn and Saddam Hussein.

He was also a member of the National Mobilization Committee for the Defense of Iraq, based in Jordan, and a passionate opponent of sanctions on Iraq. He was arrested on 3 March 2003 in Amman by The Jordanian intelligence services, along with other prominent businessmen who had financial links with Saddam Hussein's regime. He was later released.