United States Increases Sanctions Against Syria

United States Increases Sanctions Against Syria

The United States Treasury Department issued new sanctions against Syria this Thursday as a response to the continuous abuses the Bashar al-Assad regime has committed against its own citizens.

Among the sanctions were the blacklisting of four senior officials, a Syrian airline that supposedly helped transport weapons from Iran to Syria, and a local television.

The Syrian Arab airline supposedly helped transport a number of weapons from Iran’s Quds Force. The weapons consisted of mortar rounds, pistols and guns, and even rockers and antiaircraft weapons all transported in the airline's jets.

The blacklisted TV station is called Al Dunya  and it apparently helped Syria’s intelligence officers with a number of tapes that showed people openly criticizing the Assad regime. The tapes were used to make arrests and intimidate those who disagreed with the regime’s way of running things.

The Al Dunya station also supposedly aired interviews with anti-government protesters who have been tortured until they made false confessions.

The U.S. sanctions come as a growing world community says president Obama is doing too little to help end the two year old civil war in Syria.

While the White House said that a military intervention in Syria is out of the question at this time, other ways of intervening are considered, like increased support for opposition forces and more blunt diplomatic measures like the sanctions against Syria issued this Thursday.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday May 18 2013, 6:19 AM EST. Ref: LA Times. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0