On Thursday, the US Treasury announced the imposition of sanctions against figures and officials supporting the Syrian regime, including the advisor to the President of the Media System, Luna Al-Shibl.
The new sanctions included soldiers, government officials, and businessmen, in memory of the victims of the chemical attack launched by the Syrian regime on Ghouta in the Damascus countryside seven years ago, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,400 Syrians.
“These Syrian government officials actively contribute to the repression practiced by the Assad regime,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
“”The United States will continue to impose sanctions on those who facilitate the Assad regime’s ongoing war against its own people,” Mnuchin added.
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control included Assad’s media advisor, Luna Al-Shibl, as well as Muhammad Ammar Al-Saati, on the sanctions list.
Al-Saati is a senior Ba’ath Party official who led an organization that facilitated university students’ entry to the militias supported by Assad.
The leaders of several military units were also included in the sanctions list for their efforts to prevent the ceasefire in Syria.
The sanctions also affected the commander of the National Defense Forces, Fadi Saqr, in addition to the commander of the “42nd Brigade” Brigadier General Ghayath Dallah, from the 4th Division, and the commander of the “Al-Haidar” regiment, Samer Ismail, from the “Tiger Forces.”
The sanctions also targeted Assad’s aide, Yasser Ibrahim, for his efforts to prevent or obstruct a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
It is noteworthy that more than 1,400 people were killed and more than 10,000 others were injured, most of them women and children, in an attack by the regime forces with chemical weapons and poisonous gases on the eastern and western Ghouta in Rif Dimashq on August 21, 2013, according to opposition sources.
