Obama imposes tough sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran

kidrocks · May 18, 2011

Hmmm, imagine that... President Obama declaring war on Syria AND Iran.

Well, that's what the Syrians, Iranians and Tea-Partiers will equate to (war) with President Obama's imposing tough sanctions on Syria and Iran. Mark my words.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/05/18/us.syria.sanctions/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

CNN) -- President Barack Obama Wednesday imposed tough sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six other senior Syrian officials in an effort to stop the regime's fierce crackdown on protests, the U.S. Treasury Department said.

The sanctions also target two top Iranian officials whose unit was a "conduit for Iranian material support" to Syrian intelligence, according to a copy of the executive order issued by the White House.

Obama signed the order Wednesday, a move a senior administration official described as a "decisive step to increase pressure" on the Syrian government to end violence, intimidation and pressure "and begin transitioning to a democratic" process.

Condemning Syria's use of violence and intimidation against its people, the official said al-Assad "must put an end to the attacks on protesters, mass arrests and harassment" of citizens expressing rights and "must begin to introduce change."

The Syrian government has launched a clampdown on peaceful demonstrators since mid-March. The United Nations last week said as many as 850 people have died in the protests, and there have been thousands of arrests.

Along with al-Assad, the other senior Syrian officials are Vice President Farouk al-Shara, Prime Minister Adel Safar, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, Defense Minister Ali Habib Mahmoud, head of Syrian Military Intelligence Abdul Fatah Qudsiya and Political Security Directorate chief Mohammed Dib Zaitoun.

"As a result of this action, any property in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons in which the individuals listed in the Annex have an interest is blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them," the Treasury Department said in a statement detailing the steps.

The senior administration official said it's too early to estimate how much will be frozen.

"As I am sure you know, when we take actions obligatory for institutions to freeze, many institutions around the world might" do the same thing, the official said. "Amplifications around that may be significant."

Treasury also announced the designation of 10 individuals and entities under an executive order signed by Obama on April 29.

It targets Syrian officials and others "responsible for human rights abuses, including repression against the Syrian people, as well as a set of companies tied to Syrian corruption."

One is Hafiz Makhluf, a cousin of al-Assad and a senior official in the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate, the overarching civilian intelligence service in Syria.

"Makhluf was given a leading role in responding to protests in Syria, and was heavily involved in the Syrian regime's actions" in the city of Daraa, the official said, where many protesters have been killed.

Deaths mount in Syrian town

Also designated were two Iranians: Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, which is called "the conduit for Iranian material support" to the Syrian General Intelligence Directorate, and the other is Mohsen Chizari, a senior IRGC-QF officer who serves as its commander of operations and training.

"It is a completely hypocritical act" of the Iranian government and the Quds force to "lend assistance in oppression" against those expressing human rights, the senior official said. "It is something we are concerned about," the official added.

Other agencies designated are the Syrian Military Intelligence, the Syrian National Security Bureau, which is an element of the ruling Baath party; and Syrian Air Force Intelligence.

All are said to be involved in the actions against demonstrators.

Air Force Intelligence personnel allegedly "fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse crowds of demonstrators" in late April after noon prayers, the Treasury Department said. At least 43 people were killed.
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waltky · Dec 7, 2011

Daddy's boy who never had it hard...

5 Key Things to Know About Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Aug. 18, 2011 - President Obama has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside and allow Syria's future to be determined by its people. Obama said Assad's "calls for dialogue and reform have run hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people."

But who is the tall, blue-eyed, English-speaking man who has ruled Syria since 2000. Here are five key things to now about the president of Syria.

1. Assad Was Never Supposed to Be President

Assad became his father's chosen successor only after his brother, Basel, was killed in a car accident in 1994. Immediately following Basel's death, Assad left London, where he was studying ophthalmology, and returned home. Khaled Mahjoub, who said he has known the Assads since he attended kindergarten with Basel, told Time that Basel's death changed Assad. "He felt responsibility," said Mahjoub. "He was always responsible in his actions, but after Basel passed away, he had responsibility."

Upon his return to Syria, he was put in charge of Lebanon policy, according to Joshua Landis, director of the Center of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. "The idea was that anybody who could learn to rule this unruly place of Lebanon ... could deal with Syria," said Landis. In 2000, Assad became president at the age of 34 when his father died. In order to take office, the constitution had to be changed to allow an executive under 40 to hold power.

2. 'Brought Up With a Silver Spoon'

"Bashar was brought up with a silver spoon in his mouth," said Landis. "He wasn't brought up in the countryside in a small village in poverty. He was brought up in the best schools Damascus has to offer, in the lap of luxury in the city. He identified with the city elites." Assad did not have to fight his way to power. Because of the easy path, Landis said, he "really didn't have a taste for the isolation and the toughness his father brought to bear on government." Although many thought he was ill-equipped and unprepared to rule the country, Landis believes he grew into the position.

"He was much savvier than most people believed he was and he was a fairly competent ruler within the very narrow constraints of this bad system," Landis told ABC News. "This is a fairly nice guy who was well brought up, who had the best education Syria could offer. ... He tried to do what he could, but he was handed a jail. The regime as it was constructed by the father was a giant prison and he became the prison guard." The problem is that the authoritarian government in Syria is run by a small group of corrupt people at the top, Landis said, and Assad perpetuates the system in order to keep power. Landis estimated that if the government were to fall, about a million people would lose their jobs.

3. The President

Unlike other leaders in the region, Assad has few eccentricities and is not a sociopath, said Landis. Ayman Abdel-Nour, a college friend of Assad and now a political enemy, told Time that there is Assad the man -- who he describes as respectful, engaging and warm -- and then there is Assad the president. Assad the president "is not Bashar any more. Even his wife, his children, his brother mean nothing to him. He becomes the president of the Syrian Republic with all of this heritage of 7,000 years," he said. "Whatever measures are necessary for him to take, he will take them with no emotion. He has no heart."

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Margot · Dec 7, 2011

waltky said: ↑

Daddy's boy who never had it hard...

5 Key Things to Know About Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
Aug. 18, 2011 - President Obama has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside and allow Syria's future to be determined by its people. Obama said Assad's "calls for dialogue and reform have run hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing and slaughtering his own people."
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I knew most of those things.. but good work..

I actually thought when he took over he would be kinder than his hardline father and uncles. Go figure.

waltky · Jan 24, 2012

Assad gonna go the way of Kaddafi...

Syria turns down Arab League plan for Assad to step down
Monday 23rd January, 2012 - Syria Monday rejected a new Arab League peace proposal that calls for embattled President Bashar al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy and set up a new unity government, terming it a blatant infringement of the country's sovereignty and evidence of a "conspiratorial scheme."

"Syria rejects the decisions of the Arab League ministerial council ... and considers them a violation of its national sovereignty and a flagrant interference in its internal affairs," state news agency SANA quoted an official source as saying. "Syria condemns this decision, which came in the framework of the conspiratorial scheme hatched against Syria which have been exposed to our people and the Arab Homeland," the statement added. The rejection came less than 24 hours after the Arab League meeting in Cairo floated the proposal, under which President Assad would relinquish power to a deputy and start negotiations with opponents within two weeks.

The plan also calls for the formation of a new government within two months, a new constitutional council to be set up as well as a plan for parliamentary and presidential elections. The Arab League said it plans to take the idea to the United Nations in a bid to build international support. Meanwhile, the head of Arab League observers in Syria rejected criticism that his team had failed to stop killings in the country. Speaking in Cairo on Monday, Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi said that the mission was designed not to bring an immediate end to violence but to investigate and observe the situation.

The European Commission too widened sanctions against Syrian officials and organizations amid rising concerns about the government's violent crackdown on anti-regime protesters. The EU imposed asset freezes and travel bans to 22 more Syrian officials who, it said were responsible for human rights violations and eight entities that give financial support to Assad's regime.

Existing EU sanctions include an arms embargo, a ban on the import of Syrian crude oil and a ban on new investment in the Syrian petroleum sector. The UN says more than 5,000 people have died as a result of the crackdown on protests since they began in March last year. Saudi Arabia, one of the key funders of the league's projects, said it was pulling out of the league's 165-strong monitoring mission in Syria because Damascus had broken promises on peace initiatives. The Arab League ministers said Sunday they were extending the mission for another month.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=202887933
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waltky · May 24, 2012

Granny says, "Dat's right - squeeze `em till dey say 'uncle'...

Syria says sanctions have cost country $4 billion
23 May`12 Syria's oil minister blamed international sanctions Wednesday for shortages of cooking gas and other basic goods, saying the measures have bled $4 billion from the nation's ailing economy.

President Bashar Assad's regime must strike a delicate balance toward the U.S. and EU sanctions as it confronts a 15-month-old uprising against its rule, acknowledging their heavy toll while denying the regime's grip on power is in any way shaken. Sufian Allaw said the punitive measures were to blame for the shortages that have left Syrians across the country standing in long lines to pay inflated prices for cooking gas, fuel, sugar and other staples.

The U.S. ambassador to Damascus denied that the international sanctions are to blame for the shortages facing Syrians. "Our sanctions purposefully do not target oil and diesel imports, because we know that the Syrian people need both for their day-to-day lives," Ambassador Robert Ford wrote on the embassy's Facebook page.

Ford said the government is using fuel imports for its tanks. "If the Assad regime decided to cut its military expenditures, more diesel and oil would be available for the Syrian people to use," he said. Before the Syrian uprising began in March 2011, the oil sector was a pillar of Syria's economy, with oil exports mostly to Europe bringing in $7-8 million per day. This income was key to maintaining the $17 billion in foreign reserves that the government had at the start of the uprising.

Speaking to reporters in Damascus on Wednesday, Allaw said sanctions had cost Syria's oil sector about $4 billion. Prices for a tank of cooking gas have spiraled to some $25 as shortages have spread across the country. Allaw said Syria's gas production covers only half of the country's needs. Officials are seeking imports from countries not party to the sanctions. A Venezuelan tanker carrying 35,000 tons of fuel docked in Syria on Tuesday, Allaw said. Another is supposed to follow. He said officials were seeking to arrange further gas imports from Algeria and Iran.

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waltky · Dec 13, 2012

Granny says, "Dat's right - Obama's sanctions workin', Assad losin' it...

Assad losing Syria war, Russia admits for first time
Thursday 13 December 2012 - Russian deputy foriegn minister's comments come as Syria rebels say 21-month conflict has reached decisive tipping point

One of Syria's key allies admitted for the first time on Thursday that the Assad regime was losing the ground war, as rebels told the Guardian they were occupying more and more territory and besieging government troops in many parts of the country. The deputy foreign minister of Russia which has given Bashar al-Assad unstinting diplomatic and military support - said the regime faced possible defeat to the rebels, saying with unusual candour: "One must look facts in the face."

Mikhail Bogdanov said: "The tendency is that the regime and government of Syria is losing more and more control, and more and more territory. Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out." His comments came as rebels said they believed the 21-month conflict had reached a decisive tipping point, with Assad's military machine no longer capable of rolling them back. "The situation is excellent. We are winning. Not just in Aleppo but the whole of Syria," Abu Saaed, a fighter in the northern rebel-held town of El Bab said.

Other key international players appear to have come to the same conclusion as Moscow. Speaking in Brussels , Nato's secretary-general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said: "I think the regime is approaching collapse." He said it was only a question of time before the Assad government imploded. Others in the region, however, cautioned that the final unravelling could be prolonged and bloody. "Assad's situation is very difficult," said one senior Arab source in the region. "But he has a lot of strength. He is still getting arms and finance from Iran and his military capability is still robust."

On the ground the Syrian war remains an asymmetric one. The rebels are short of ammunition and have mainly light weapons: machine guns, Kalshnikovs, and home-made rockets. The government, by contrast, has Scud missiles fired for the first time this week at rebels in Aleppo as well as Sukhoi jets and attack helicopters. It also has stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, dispersed at between 40 and 50 sites across the country, and a source of growing western concern. Nonetheless, over the past three months the rebels have acquired fresh momentum. The Free Syrian Army as well as jihadist military outfits such as Jabhat al-Nusra, outlawed by Washington this week have overrun a succession of Syrian army bases and military schools, and is now turning the regime's weapons on them.

More http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/13/assad-syria-war-losing-russia
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See also:

Assad Losing Syria, Say Russia and NATO
December 13, 2012, Russia, Syria's most important international ally, said for the first time Thursday that President Bashar al-Assad is increasingly losing control of the Middle Eastern country and the opposition may win the civil war, as NATO's top official also said he thinks the regime is on the brink of collapse.

The statements by Russia's deputy foreign minister and North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen came as rebels made gains across the country and on the international stage and one day after the U.S. and NATO said Mr. Assad's forces had fired Scud missiles at rebel areas. A bomb blast Thursday near a school in a Damascus suburb killed 16 people, at least half of them women and children, the state news agency reported. Rebels have seized large swaths of territory in north Syria and appear to be expanding their control outside of Damascus, pushing the fight closer to the seat of Mr. Assad's power. On Wednesday, the U.S., Europe and their allies recognized the newly reorganized opposition leadership, giving it a stamp of credibility and possibly paving the way for greater international aid to those fighting Mr. Assad's forces.

World powers have remained deadlocked on how to end Syria's crisis, with the U.S. Europe and many Arab nations calling on Mr. Assad to stand down while Russia, China and Iran continue to back him. But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov offered the first acknowledgment yet from a top Russian official that Mr. Assad's regime may be in trouble. "We must look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory," Mr. Bogdanov said during hearings at the Kremlin advisory body, the Public Chamber. "The opposition victory can't be excluded."

He didn't suggest that Russia would immediately change its stance toward Mr. Assad and called for a political solution, saying continued war would be tragic. "The fighting will become even more intense, and you will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of people," he said. "If such a price for the ouster of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable." Asked if and when Russia is going to evacuate its embassy in Syria, Mr. Bogdanov said that the "moment hasn't come yet."

He added that the Foreign Ministry is looking at possible evacuation plans for thousands of Russian citizens, most of whom are Russian women married to Syrian men and their children. "We have plans for any occasion,"Mr. Bogdanov said. He said that "half of them support the opposition," adding that Syrian opposition delegations that have visited Moscow have included some Russian citizens. NATO's Mr. Rasmussen said the regime's collapse is "only a matter of time." He confirmed earlier reports that NATO had detected Syrian forces launching short-range missiles at opposition forces within Syria, saying this illustrated the "utter disregard" for the lives of the Syrian people.

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puffin · Dec 13, 2012

WATCH OUT ASSAD!!!!!! If you aren't careful Obama is going to send Richard Simons to go after you! Obama is a coward. He'll never actually do a thing except send some idiot out to the Sunday shows to repeat the 'talking points'. The whole world has ZERO respect for America's limp-wristed poser. Don't give me that OBL BS. That had been worked on for years. All Obama had to do was give the order. In case everything went wrong every senior officer involved had written their letter of resignation and given it to Obama BEFORE he lifted a finger. Within four years Iran will be waving their nuclear bomb at Israel. Obama will never do a single thing to help Israel.

Defengar · Dec 13, 2012

puffin said: ↑

WATCH OUT ASSAD!!!!!! If you aren't careful Obama is going to send Richard Simons to go after you! Obama is a coward. He'll never actually do a thing except send some idiot out to the Sunday shows to repeat the 'talking points'. The whole world has ZERO respect for America's limp-wristed poser. Don't give me that OBL BS. That had been worked on for years. All Obama had to do was give the order. In case everything went wrong every senior officer involved had written their letter of resignation and given it to Obama BEFORE he lifted a finger. Within four years Iran will be waving their nuclear bomb at Israel. Obama will never do a single thing to help Israel.
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Are you saying he hasn't killed loads of major terrorist leaders with done strikes?

waltky · Jun 14, 2013

Easing Syrian sanctions so civilians can get necessities...

U.S. looks to help Syrian civilians, eases sanctions
June 12th, 2013 > As the Obama administration debates further help for besieged Syrian opposition fighters, it is moving to aid Syrian civilians in opposition-controlled areas in rebuilding shattered towns and villages.

U.S. officials announced Wednesday they are easing economic sanctions on Syria, allowing the importation of equipment and technology into liberated areas of Syria. The steps are being coordinated through the Departments of State, Commerce, and Treasury. Secretary of State John Kerry signed a limited waiver of the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2003 that authorizes the export , subject to case-by-case review, of certain U.S. items. They include commodities, software, and technology related to water supply and sanitation; agricultural production and food processing; power generation; oil and gas production; construction and engineering; transportation; and educational infrastructure.

Companies can apply to the Department of Commerce for licenses to provide those materials. Current sanctions allow the export of food and medicine without a license and medical devices are covered under an existing waiver. The Treasury Department also will allow Americans to apply for specific licenses that would enable them to participate in certain economic activities in Syria such as oil-related transactions that benefit the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, or its supporters, and transactions involving Syria's agricultural and telecommunications sectors

Treasury also is amending its regulations to authorize the export of services and transfer of funds in support of not-for-profit activities to preserve Syria's cultural heritage sites. A senior administration official, who briefed reporters on the waivers, said the action is aimed at addressing specific concerns that have come in as well as "because we expect there to be more and more need and more and more demand for these kinds of goods and services going forward." The official said the waiver does not affect existing regulations related to providing arms to the Syrian opposition.

Kerry, speaking with reporters at the State Department Wednesday after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague, said he had "no new announcements" on any potential decision by President Barack Obama to arm the Syrian opposition. "I think that there's a unanimity about the importance of trying to find way to peace, not a way to war," he said. " "The Assad regime is making that very difficult. We will be, as everybody knows and has written about, we're meeting to talk about the various balances in this issue right now. I have nothing to announce about that at this point," Kerry said. "But clearly the choice of weapons that (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) is engaged in across the board challenge anybody's values and standards of human behavior and we're going have to make judgments for ourselves about how we can help the opposition to be able to deal with that," he said.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/12/u-s-looks-to-help-syrian-civilians-eases-sanctions/
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Obama imposes tough sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran

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Obama imposes tough sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran

kidrocks New Member

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