Intel: US ramps up Syria pressure campaign with sanctions targeting Assad’s teen son

Elizabeth Hagedorn

Jul 29, 2020

Russian soldiers sit in their vehicle next to a portrait of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in Khan Sheikhun in the southern countryside of the Idlib province on September 25, 2019. - With military backing from Russia, President Bashar al-Assad's forces have retaken large parts of Syria from rebels and jihadists since 2015, and now control around 60 percent of the country. Russia often refers to troops it deployed in Syria as military "advisers" even though its forces and warplanes are also directly in — Russian soldiers sit in their vehicle next to a portrait of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in Khan Sheikhun in the southern countryside of Idlib province on Sept. 25, 2019. Assad's 18-year-old grandson, who has the same name, was listed as being subject to US sanctions on July 29, 2020. — MAXIME POPOV/AFP via Getty Images

The United States today announced 14 new targets, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s 18-year-old son, in a fresh round of sanctions aimed at squeezing the Syrian regime and its financial backers.

“It is time for Assad’s needless, brutal war to end.  This, above all, is what our sanctions campaign is meant to bring about,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.

Hafez al-Assad, the president’s oldest son, was among the targets announced by the US Treasury Department, as were Zuhair al-Assad and the Syrian Arab Army’s First Division. Prominent businessman Wasim al-Qatan and a number of Damascus-based businesses engaging in construction, real estate and tourism were also blacklisted.

“While corrupt businessmen with ties to Assad invest in luxury real estate made possible by forced displacement of innocent civilians, they also worsen the oppression of the Syrian people,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Intel: US ramps up Syria pressure campaign with sanctions targeting Assad’s teen son

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