The Syrian Negotiations Commission said that the US House of Representatives’ passage of the Caesar Act will stifle the Assad regime economically and put pressure on its supporters.
Smart News Network quoted the Commission’s spokesman Yahya al-Aridi as saying that the legalization “will force supporters of the regime to sit at the negotiation table and engage seriously as the regime has always sought to evade entering into serious negotiations.” He added: “The Assad regime received support from Russia to get away with its crimes, but now the regime and is supporters are feeling seriously threatened with tough sanctions.”
“The legalization will stifle the Assad regime economically and will likely affect its sponsors and all those dealing with it,” al-Aridi said. He did not rule out that the Assad regime would try to circumvent the legalization. “However, the sheer scale of the sanctions means that such attempts will be doomed to fail.”
“As long as the Assad regime seeks to hinder political solution to the crisis, the sanctions will get tougher and will be expanded to affect its supporters.”
The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act of 2019 to impose new sanctions on the Assad regime and its supporters one day after the European Union slammed new sanctions on individuals and entities directly linked to the regime.
In comments he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, President of the Syrian Coalition Abdurrahman Mustafa said: “The passage of the Caesar Act and the EU’s expansion of sanctions against the Assad regime are steps in the right direction and must be implemented effectively without further delay.”
“The US sanctions need to be coupled with judicial procedures to prevent impunity for those involved in violations and push towards a political solution in accordance with international resolutions and the Geneva Communique of 2012,” President Mustafa said. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
