Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, becomes US target for sanctions

Barack Obama wants to punish regime for failing to restrain security forces during pro-democracy protests The US is planning to target Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for the first time by imposing sanctions against him in response to his brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests. The state department was expected to make an announcement late on Wednesday, saying he will face a number of punitive actions, including an assets freeze. The US introduced sanctions against other members of Syria’s regime last month but deliberately excluded Assad in the hope that he would restrain his security forces. Six other senior Syrian officials are also to face sanctions, as well as two top Iranian officials whose unit was, according to the US Treasury, a conduit for Iranian support to Syrian intelligence. Washington has claimed the Iranians have advised Syria on how to crack down on protesters. The sanctions are largely symbolic as Assad has few assets in the US and is unlikely ever to visit the country. However, they show the Obama administration has finally lost patience with Assad, previously seen as a potential reformer. The measures come ahead of Barack Obama’s major Middle East speech when he will address criticism that the US response to the Arab spring has been slow and contradictory. His speech is intended to reposition the US, portraying Obama as a champion of the newly emerging Middle East democracies. Critics have accused Washington for taking military action in Libya but failing to intervene in Syria, and being slow to cut ties with traditional US allies such as the former Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak. The

Posted by on May 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.