Report: U.S. Plans Sanctions on Syria, Amid Brutal Crackdowns
The Obama administration may level sanctions against Syria as punishment for President Bashar Assad’s government’s violent crackdown on protesters, the Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The U.S. is currently drafting an executive order that will empower President Obama to freeze the assets of senior Syrian officials and bar them from engaging in any business dealings with the United States, the report said, citing officials briefed on the matter.
According to the report, freezing Syrian officials’ assets in the U.S. will have little impact on Assad’s inner circle. However, the hope is that European countries, where Syrian officials have more substantial holdings, will follow suit, thereby having a more crippling economic effect.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
