President Obama Wednesday announced tougher sanctions against Syria and its President, Bashar al Assad, as well as other senior officials in his government, in an effort to turn up the pressure on his regime and their increasingly deadly crackdown against peaceful protesters.
Previously, the United States has frozen assets and banned trade deals with senior Syrian government officials including al Assad in an effort to convince him to end the violent response rebel groups in Syria and their desire to institute democratic reforms.
While Obama has issued stern denouncements regarding the violence in Syria, Wednesday’s sanctions are aimed at Assad and are the strongest U.S. actions to date against the Syrian leader, whose family has ruled the country for nearly four decades.
“President al-Assad and his regime must immediately end the use of violence, answer the calls of the Syrian people for a more representative government, and embark upon the path of meaningful democratic reform,” said David Cohen, Treasury’s acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
In addition to targeting al Assad, the sanctions affect six senior officials in his regime, including Farouk al-Shara, Syria’s vice president, and Adel Safar, Syria’s prime minister, as well as 10 other government leaders responsible for ordering the violent crackdown, including al Assad’s cousin and Syrian intelligence agencies.
The sanctions block their access to any property in the United States and prohibit anybody in the United States from “engaging in transactions with them.” Because Syrian and the United States have very few bilateral agreements, aside from limited agricultural trade between the two countries, the sanctions are aimed at convincing other nations — particularly Turkey — to erect their own economic barriers on the country.
