The US Senate passed the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act after a similar move by the House of Representatives to impose unprecedentedly sweeping legal and economic sanctions on the Assad regime.
The Syrian National Coalition said that the adoption of the bill provides an opportunity to put an end to the international community’s inaction towards the situation in Syria and to work to build up the momentum needed to implement international resolutions, most importantly UN Security Council Resolution 2254.
In a press release issued on Wednesday, the Coalition said that despite the long delay in the procedures related to the adoption of the bill, the move means a lot at this time. It stressed that the “bill came against the backdrop of Russia’s continued obstruction of the UN Security Council’s through its repeated use of its veto power to shield the Assad regime thus giving it the green light to do whatever it wanted.”
The Coalition underscored that “the main cause of what has happened to date and the deterioration of the situation in Syria is the Assad regime, its allies and supporters, and whoever continues to supply it with money, weapons, and militias as well as whoever provides a political cover for these crimes.”
The Coalition expressed its hope that “the act will be applied with the utmost seriousness by targeting the parties involved and responsible for the killings, mass displacement, and torture against the Syrian people.” (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
