Israel Matzav

US slaps sanctions on Syria, Assad laughs

As Bashar al-Assad's army killed 15 more Syrians on Wednesday, the United States sanctioned the Syrian dictator, which probably gave him a good laugh.

Syrian forces killed 15 civilians in the city of Homs on Wednesday, an activists' group said, despite international calls for President Bashar Assad to end a bloody crackdown on protests against his rule.

The United States said the world was watching Syria "in horror" and slapped sanctions on a Syrian bank and mobile phone company. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who sent his foreign minister to Damascus on Tuesday to urge an end to the bloodshed, said Syria "is pointing guns at its own people".

...

The White House said US President Barack Obama believes Syria would be better off without Assad and the United States plans to keep pressure on the Syrian government.

"We are all watching with horror at what he is doing to his own people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Earlier the U.S. Treasury Department announced new sanctions which it said were aimed at the financial infrastructure helping to hold up Assad's government.

It said it was designating the Commercial Bank of Syria, a Syrian state-owned financial institution, and its Lebanon-based subsidiary, Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, under a presidential executive order that targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters.

It also designated Syriatel, Syria's largest mobile phone operator, under an executive order targeting Syrian officials and others responsible for human rights abuses in the country.

I'm sure that will get Assad to stop killing his own people - after there are no rebels left.

What would be effective is the kind of sanctions proposed by Congress for Iran (before they were watered down to avoid a Presidential veto), but of course Obama will never agree to that unless the UN does, and the UN will never agree to that because Russia and China will veto it.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Bashar al-Assad, Syrian sanctions, Syrian uprising

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:26 PM