The US has imposed new sanctions on Syria's President Bashar Assad's son Hafez, three individuals, and 10 entities, the Treasury Department said in a statement. Washington has also sanctioned the First Division of the Syrian Arab Army, according to the Treasury.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said on Twitter that Washington is continuing its campaign to force Assad's "regime to cease its brutal war against Syrian people".tal war against Syrian people".
Today we continue our campaign of sanctions designed to force Bashar al-Assad and his regime to cease their brutal war against the Syrian people and implement the political solution called for by UNSCR 2254. This is the only credible path to the peace the Syrian people deserve.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 29, 2020
"More sanctions will follow as part of a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime the resources it uses to wage war against the Syrian people", White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in the statement.
The statement comes after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said earlier in July that Damascus had already started to implement some measures in an effort to counter the new US sanctions, noting that the country wanted to turn them into "an opportunity to advance the national economy".
The US has been increasing its sanctions policy against Syria for decades and has gradually stepped up the restrictions since the beginning of the civil war in 2011.
In response to the US restrictions, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said that the country and its people would resist all American sanctions as stubbornly just as they have resisted terrorism.
