On Monday evening, the United States announced the imposition of new sanctions on officials, entities and individuals, including companies operating in the oil sector, in the fifth package of sanctions under the US Caesar Act for the Protection of Syrian Civilians, which targets the Bashar al-Assad regime and its supporters, and came into effect in mid-June.
The new US sanctions package includes Syrian military officials, members of parliament, and entities affiliated with the Syrian regime, as well as Syrian and Lebanese individuals accused of supporting Syrian oil production to finance the Assad regime, according to the US Treasury statement.
The US Treasury and State Department included 19 new individuals and entities on their blacklist, most notably the two oil industry companies, "Arfada Petroleum Private Joint Stock Company" and "Salisar Shipping", based in Lebanon and Syria, in addition to those responsible for them.
Among the individuals targeted were the director of Air Force Intelligence, Ghassan Jawdat Ismail, and an official in another intelligence branch, Nasr Al-Ali.
Under these sanctions, any potential assets of the targeted individuals in the United States are frozen, and they are prevented from entering the US financial system and US soil.
"The Treasury Department is determined to continue imposing economic pressure on the Assad regime and its supporters due to the regime's repression," said US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin in the statement.
For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the decision to impose these sanctions was taken as a tribute to the victims of the bombing of the Syrian city of Douma on October 30, 2015 by "Bashar al-Assad's forces supported by Iran and Russia," and "resulted in more deaths. Out of 70 Syrian civilians. "
The recent US measures are considered a new round of sanctions as part of Washington's efforts to pressure the Assad regime to return to negotiations led by the United Nations and end the war that began about 10 years ago after peaceful popular protests that demanded Assad's departure from power.
Caesar is the pseudonym of a former photographer in the Syrian regime's army who risked fleeing the country in 2014 with 55,000 leaked photos of brutal acts and torture to death committed in the prisons of the Syrian regime.
On June 17, the Caesar Act entered into force, with Washington announcing that sanctions would be imposed on 39 persons and entities associated with the Assad regime.