The US government has imposed ‘sweeping sanctions’ on Syrian officials in response to the sarin gas attack the country’s dictator hit civilians with earlier this month.
The Treasury Department ordered a freeze on all assets in the United States belonging to 271 employees of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center (SSRC), and blocked any American person or business from dealing with them.
The SSRC was responsible for producing the chemical weapons Washington believes were used in the attack and the means to deliver them, a statement said.
‘We intend to hold the Assad regime accountable for its unacceptable behavior,’ Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin declared from the White House.
A chemical attack left 87 dead, including many children, in rebel-held territory in Idlib province on April 4, with the West accusing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of being responsible.
President Trump punished Assad already with a one-time airstrike. The United States also fired 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield on April 7.
Foreign leaders and US lawmakers commended the swift action. But legislators demanded to know if Trump intended to take further action to displace Assad.
‘These sweeping sanctions target the scientific support center for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad´s horrific chemical weapons attack on innocent civilian men, women, and children,’ Mnuchin said in a statement on Monday.
Mnuchin said, ‘The United States is sending a strong message with this action that we will hold the entire Assad regime accountable for these blatant human rights violations in order to deter the spread of these types of barbaric chemical weapons.’
Treasury already had imposed sanctions against 18 Syrian officials in January, and Mnuchin said the administration ‘will relentlessly pursue and shut down the financial networks of all individuals involved with the production of chemical weapons used to commit these atrocities.’
He would not commit to additional sanctions on Monday or say whether the government had any knowledge of Americans doing business with the entity that was blacklisted.
‘I can’t comment on the specifics of these sanctions beyond what we released,’ he said.
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