ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United States imposed long-anticipated new sanctions on members and entities of the Assad regime Wednesday for their crimes against the Syrian people. “As of today, the sanctions provisions of the Caesar Act are fully in effect. Anyone doing business with the Assad regime, no matter where in the world they are, is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions,” said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a statement on Wednesday. “Today, the Treasury Department and State Department are releasing 39 designations under the Caesar Act and Executive Order 13894 as the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue and support it uses to wage war and commit mass atrocities against the Syrian people,” added Pompeo. The list includes Bashar al-Assad, his wife Asma al-Assad, as well as several military commanders and entities. The Syrian foreign ministry slammed the implementation of the first batch of the sanctions, claiming it violates international law and norms. “The US administration talking about human rights in Syria exceeds the ugliest forms of lies and hypocrisy as embodied in its policy of supporting terrorism that shed the blood of the Syrians and destroyed their achievements,” a source from the ministry told the state-owned SANA news agency on Wednesday. Syria has been embroiled in unrest for much of the last nine years, since peaceful protests against Assad and his government escalated into a multi-sided civil war, involving multiple countries. Presently, the country is largely under the control of three main parties: regime-held areas, Kurdish-held areas and areas controlled by pro-Turkey militants. The new sanctions are named after a former Syrian military photographer, who fled the country in 2014 with tens of thousands of images displaying the brutality and torture taking place in Assad regime jails. Economic impact The Caesar Act has already begun to be felt on the ground in Syria for months, with the anticipation of its implementation causing the Syrian pound to rapidly lose its value against the dollar. The value of one dollar even reached more than 3,000 pounds on the black market last week. The Rojava Information Center, which provides information about northeast Syria, reported that the unofficial exchange rate of a dollar reached 4,000 pounds on Tuesday, but dropped to 2,900 on Wednesday. The official value of the dollar has stayed around 700 pounds since March, but Syria’s central bank officially devalued its pound Wednesday to 1,250. "The exchange rate for financing imports has become 1,256 Syrian pounds to the dollar, and the buying price for transfers from abroad 1,250 Syrian pounds," it said, reported AFP. In an attempt to mitigate the effects of the tanking Syrian pound, Idlib’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-administered National Salvation Government is making moves to replace the local currency with the Turkish lira. Addressing the UN Security Council via video conference on Tuesday, United Nations’ envoy to Syria Geir O. Pedersen warned that the economic crisis is hitting every part of the country regardless of who is controlling it. “I heard a new level of alarm at the dramatic collapse in economic conditions throughout the country,” said the envoy. However, James Jeffrey - US Special Representative for Syria Engagement and Special Envoy to the Global Coalition against Defeat Islamic State (ISIS) - claimed that “Assad’s atrocities, not sanctions, have destroyed Syria” in an opinion piece for Asharq Al-Awsat news agency on Wednesday. Jeffrey also said that the sanctions specifically “target those that facilitate the Assad regime's production of oil, as well as those that facilitate the regime's acquisition of aviation related goods, services, or technologies that are used for military purposes.” “Assad can end this needless war only by declaring a nation-wide ceasefire, constructively participating in the Constitutional Committee talks in Geneva, and implementing a political vision that puts the Syrian people's democratic aspirations first,” he added. Rojava Kurdish officials in northeast Syria (Rojava) have requested the US reduce the impact of the sanctions on the areas they control, according to local media. William Roebuck, the US top official in Syria, met with Kurdish officials in Rojava on Tuesday. Berivan Khaled, co-chair of the Executive Council of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES), told North Press Agency (NPA) that they explained the economic crisis in their region to the US official and told him that the NES has projects to implement while it has limited financial capability. Roebuck “assured its continuous support of the Autonomous Administration on economic and political levels," said Khaled without elaborating on how the US will support it. Even if the US spares Kurdish areas directly from the sanctions, the areas will likely still negatively impact the region, which still uses the Syrian pound, and has some mutual trade with regime-controlled areas.
