Credit: Wikipedia Commons / Fars News Agency /     Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei meets Syria President Bashar al-Assad in Tehran February 2019. 

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC TIMES

The Trump administration announced Wednesday tough economic and travel sanctions  against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for human rights abuses. The travel and economic sanctions target 39 Syrian individuals, including Assad and his wife under the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act (the Caesar Act). 

“Today, the Treasury Department and State Department are releasing 39 designations under the Caesar Act and Executive Order 13894 as the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue and support it uses to wage war and commit mass atrocities against the Syrian people. As of today, the sanctions provisions of the Caesar Act are fully in effect.  Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.”

-U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo

The Secretary of State added that the Caesar Act, signed into law by President Trump 180 days ago, under which the U.S. Congress “authorized severe economic sanctions to promote accountability for brutal acts against the Syrian people by the Assad regime and its foreign enablers.”   Among those sanctioned are: Bashar Al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad pursuant to E.O. 13894 Section 2(a)(i)(A) and Section 2(a)(ii), respectively, “as well as  funder of these atrocities” Mohammed Hamsho and Iranian militia Fatemiyoun Division pursuant to E.O. 13894 2(a)(i)(D).  We are further designating Maher al-Assad, along with his Fourth Division of the Syrian Arab Army and its leadership Ghassan Ali Bilal and Samer al-Dana pursuant to E.O. 13894 Section 2(a)(i)(A).  Lastly, we are designating Bushra al-Assad, Manal al-Assad, Ahmad Sabir Hamsho, Amr Hamsho, Ali Hamsho, Rania al-Dabbas, and Sumaia Hamcho under E.O. 13894 Section 2(a)(ii).

Credit: Wikipedia  Commons /    Bashar and Asma al-Assad, President and wife of Syria  in Moscow May 2005. 

“For more than nine years, the Assad regime has waged a bloody war against the Syrian people and committed innumerable atrocities, some of which rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including killings, torture, enforced disappearances, and the use of chemical weapons.  Since the conflict began, more than half a million Syrians have died and eleven million people – half of Syria’s pre-war population – have been displaced.  Bashar al-Assad and his regime squander tens of millions of dollars each month to fund their needless war, destroying homes, schools, shops, and public markets. ”  Pompeo said.

The Caesar Sanctions were named more than six years ago  after a policeman only known as Caesar smuggled out of Syria the photographic proof that the Assad regime was torturing and executing many thousands of Syrians in the regime’s prisons, Pompeo said.