A week after Ottawa announced sanctions against 27 high-ranking officials in the Assad regime, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland expanded the sanctions on Friday by listing additional individuals and entities.
The amended list under Canada’s Special Economic Measures (Syria) Regulations now includes 17 high-ranking individuals in the regime of Bashar al-Assad and five entities linked to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. Those on the new sanctions list will be subject to an asset freeze and dealings prohibition.
Adding the new names to the sanctions list is part of additional international pressure on the Assad regime to immediately stop the “repeated and heinous attacks against its own people,” the Canadian government said.
“Canada is working with its allies to put an end to the war in Syria and to hold those responsible to account,” Freeland said in a statement. “Today’s announcement of additional sanctions against key officials in the Syrian regime sends a strong, unified message to the Assad regime that their war crimes will not be tolerated and that they will be held accountable for their actions.”
On April 14, Canada applied sanctions against 27 high-ranking Assad regime officials in response to the chemical attack on the town of Khan Sheikhoun. The last time Canada took such a move was in 2014 when Ottawa announced scansions on 190 Assad regime officials.
A statement issued by Canada’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on April 14 pointed out that among the 27 officials affected by the sanctions were three senior military officials who were already sanctioned by the European Union. The officials are Jawdat Mawas, Adib Salama, and Tahir Khalil. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department + Agencies)
