Marah al-Bukai
It is not surprising that the internal power struggle within the Syrian regime, which manifested in the worst form through the message that one of the most dangerous magnates in the al-Assad family, Rami Makhlouf, sent to his cousin Bashar al-Assad. The message begged him to lift the siege on his financial empire which he built through his suspicious partnership with the state, circumventing laws, and his management of groups of powerful mercenaries in the ruling family. It is not surprising that this conflict was just the beginning before approaching implementation of the US Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act.
The economic sanctions against the Syrian regime, called the “Caesar Act”, will come into effect in June, to pressure those responsible for financial corruption and everyone whose hands are stained with the blood of the Syrian people and support or participate in campaigns of violence against civilians, whether they are states or individuals.
The US House of Representatives passed the Caesar’s Law unanimously on January 22nd, 2019, followed by the Senate’s approval in November, at which time it became enforceable. This law will be painful for the Assad regime, which continues to commit the most heinous unprecedented crimes and massacres against Syrians who are demanding freedom and deliverance from the tyranny and violence inherent in the state apparatus. 55,000 pictures of victims who died under torture, leaked by a dissident photographer codenamed “Caesar,” spread throughout the world. The bill was written after the pictures were verified to be true; noting that these photos were collected from only three detention centers out of dozens of regime detention and execution centers.
The law aims to protect civilians, support those working to collect criminal evidence and facilitate their work to punish the perpetrators; it also provides sanctions against any person or entity that deals with or provides funding to the Syrian government, including the Syrian intelligence and security apparatus or the Syrian Central Bank.
In an attempt by the regime to escape consequences, it resorted to exploiting the circumstances imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic as the shortest and fastest way to break the international political isolation imposed on Damascus. It tried to alleviate US and European economic sanctions that came as a result of the Assad regime’s assault on its people and its practice of violence, displacement, and intimidation for hundreds of thousands of Syrians, with the help of the Russian military and Iranian sectarian militias.
However, Washington, which is alert to such circumventions by Assad and his allies, announced on the official website of the U.S. Department of the Treasury and in a statement on April 16th to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC): "OFAC’s Syria sanctions are designed to deter Bashar al-Assad, his cronies, foreign enablers, and the Government of Syria from accessing the international financial system and global supply chain. In addition, there are many illicit actors that operate in Syria, such as those related to Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Iran, or Russia, which may trigger additional sanctions and prohibitions."
The statement continued: "OFAC remains committed to ensuring that these sanctions do not limit the ability of civilians located in Syria to receive humanitarian support from the international community. Such support may include providing items to the civilians of Syria, to include testing kits, respiratory devices, personal protective equipment, and medicine used in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and recovery from COVID-19."
U.S. Special Envoy for Syria James Jeffrey confirmed the information in the recent Department of the Treasury statement. In a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Jeffrey stressed that economic sanctions are never imposed on humanitarian aid or medical supplies, as these materials can flow freely, adding: "We choose economic sanctions very carefully and we direct them to target figures of the ruling regime and not ordinary Syrian citizens."
Thus, the Syrian regime fails to appeal to international sympathy using the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, and it will not succeed in hunting opportunities for attempts by some Arab countries to recycle and return it to the umbrella of the Arab League.
Consequently, in this climate of growing international pressure, the Syrian regime will have no choice but to submit to an organized process of political transition within the parameters of the UN resolutions endorsed by the Security Council, primarily resolution 2254, which is the least it can do to survive the justice process.