President Bashar al-ASSAD and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad ZARIF met in Damascus on April 20, 2020. Source of the photo: www.arabnews.com.
Kelly CRAFT, US Ambassador to the UN told Syria’s Bashar al-ASSAD government on June 16, 2020, to make a choice between a political solution to the Syrian conflict or sanctions by Washington.
US new Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act is named after a Syrian military that defected and documented the killings and destruction carried out in Syria by the government of Bashar al-ASSAD.
As of Wednesday, the Caesar Act will target the ASSAD government with sanctions, particularly in four economic areas: oil, construction, engineering, and military aircraft.
It also threatens to punish Syria’s allies, such as Iran, Hezbollah (Lebanon), and Russia.
“The Assad regime has a clear choice to make: pursue the political path established in Resolution 2254, or leave the United States with no other choice but to continue withholding reconstruction funding and impose sanctions against the regime and its financial backers” CRAFT said to a UN meeting.
TRUMP’s administration will take “decisive steps to prevent the ASSAD regime from securing a military victory” referring to the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act of 2019, which takes effect on June 17, 2020.
The ambassador reiterated Washington’s call for the ASSAD government to immediately release thousands of civilians who have been detained in Syria.
Maintaining a broad ceasefire in northwest Syria is “absolutely vital for the achievement of a political solution to this conflict, and it is essential for the work of the Special Envoy and the full implementation of Resolution 2254” CRAFT said.
The US will continue to reject “any attempt by the Assad regime and its allies to use military force, obstruction, or misinformation to bypass UN efforts to restore peace in Syria” CRAFT added.
The first effect of the law is that the sanctions will increase the price of many services and commodities and many people will see the president’s ASSAD departure as a way to end their suffering.
Another effect might be to make the president TRUMP personally, actors to muscle Iran out of Syria and Lebanon. This could happen if both the local leadership in Syria, especially the military, and Russia reduced their dependence on Iran preserving the ASSAD regime.
This article was edited using the data from the Aljazeera.com, Arabnews.com, and Aa.com.tr.
