18-year-Old Hafez al-Assad will not be able to make it in the United States, and its assets possible there will be frozen.
Its name is now inscribed on the black list of the United States : the administration Trump has blacklisted the eldest son of the syrian president Bashar al-Assad, Hafez, at the age of 18 years, in the framework of a new round of sanctions against Damascus, announced this Wednesday the head of the american diplomacy Mike Pompeo.
In all, the u.s. government seeks 14 new entities and individuals, after a first wave of sanctions announced in mid-June, when the entry into force of the act “Caesar”, with the hope of depriving resources to the regime and its supporters.
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“We have now inscribed on the black list more than 50 supports keys of Bashar al-Assad and their businesses, as well as some military organizations who tortures your with the syrian people,” said a senior official of the u.s. government to the press.
“increase in the power of its significance” within the family
The young Hafez al-Assad – a first name as a tribute to his grand-father, the ruler of Syria until his death in 2000 – will not be able to make it to the United States, where its assets may be frozen. He joined his mother, Asma al-Assad, added in June to the black list.
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The syrian president is, for him, sanctioned by Washington since early in the 2011 crackdown to quell a movement of popular revolt, which quickly led to a devastating war has made more than 380 000 people dead and millions of refugees.
“We have seen a rise in the power of his importance within the family,” said the senior u.s. official about the son of Bashar al-Assad. More generally, “the adult children are still mostly to conduct business in the name and for the account of their parents punished or other relatives,” he added.
The “military and luxury”
beyond this addition to the black list, the new sanctions also target the first division of the syrian army and its commander Zouheir Taoufiq al-Assad. “The army of the Assad regime, has become the symbol of the brutality, repression, and corruption,” said Mike Pompeo in a press release, calling on them to put an “end” to the war “unnecessary and brutal”.
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The u.s. Treasury has sanctioned the business man syrian Wassim Anwar al-Qattan, “that has signed several contracts with the government of Syria to develop shopping centres and hotels held by the State in Damascus”.
“By investing in luxury real estate, thanks to the forced displacement of innocent civilians, businessmen corrupt related to Assad worse as the oppression of the syrian people”, said the secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin in a separate release.
Act “Caesar”
The law “Caesar” was enacted in December by the president of the United States Donald Trump. Caesar is the pseudonym of an ex-photographer of the police syrian military who defected in 2013, carrying 55 000 images depicting the brutality and the abuse occurred in syrian prisons. His hearing, incognito, before the u.s. Congress in 2014 was at the origin of this text, which bears his name and which will have taken five years to see the light of day.
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The law provides for a ban of entry into the United States and to bar access to the u.s. financial system to any person, institution or business which would be an obstacle to peace in Syria, or facilitating logistically the war effort of Damascus.
