United States Sanctions Assad Backers

The U.S. State Department announced it is sanctioning six Syrian officials and Russia’s Tempbank, a Moscow-based bank that has provided millions of dollars in cash and has helped facilitate financial services to the Assad regime. The Treasury Department sanctions also targeted Tempbank’s senior executive, Mikhail Gagloev, who the U.S. claims has personally travelled to the Syrian capital of Damascus to make deals with the Assad regime. “In one instance, Tempbank arranged to deliver millions of dollars in cash to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow for pickup by cash couriers working for the Central Bank of Syria,” the department said in a statement. “In addition to its close cooperation with the Central Bank of Syria, Tempbank has facilitated deals and provided financial services to SYTROL, a Syrian state oil company sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.” The sanctions freeze assets they hold within U.S. jurisdictions and prohibit U.S. citizens from doing business with them. David Cohen, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the action builds on the department’s ongoing effort to apply economic pressure on the Assad regime by “choking off access to the international financial system.” Two Syrian refining businesses, Banias Refinery Co. and Homs Refinery Co., also were placed on the U.S. sanctions list. Brig Gen. Bassam al-Hassan, an adviser to Assad, was among the Syrian officials sanctioned. Al-Hassan is Assad’s representative to Syria’s government agency responsible for developing and producing nonconventional weapons and missiles, the department said. The five other Syrian officials sanctioned were: Hussein Arnous, minister of public works; Ahmad al-Qadri, minister of agriculture; Ismael Ismael, minister of finance; Kinda al-Shammat, minister of social affairs and a former Syrian representative to the U.N. Development Fund, and Hassan Hijazi, minister of labor. To date, the United States has imposed sanctions on nearly 200 individuals and entities since the onset of unrest in Syria. (Source: Syrian Coalition)