Iran, Russia condemn US economic terrorism against Syrian nation

On Wednesday, the US State Department and Treasury released 39 targets for sanctions, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the bans “the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue.”

The sanctions are part of the so-called Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, which came into effect on Wednesday six months after it was signed into law by US President Donald Trump.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday that the Caesar Act runs against international law and humanitarian principles.

“At a time when the world is dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, imposing such inhumane sanctions will only increase the Syrian people’s suffering and pain,” he said.

“The Islamic Republic, as it has previously declared, attaches no value to such cruel and unilateral sanctions, which are enacted and implemented through bullying, and considers them economic terrorism against the ordinary Syrians people in line with US efforts to destabilize the country.”

Mousavi further expressed Tehran’s resolve to boost economic relations with Damascus and continue cooperation with the Syrian nation and government despite sanctions.

Similarly on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry complained that the fresh US restrictive measures target ordinary citizens of the war-stricken country. 

“The Caesar Act that is on paper aimed at protecting civilians only affects ordinary Syrians,” it said. “Washington fully realizes that the unilateral US sanctions that have been in place for a number of years and new restrictions added to them today largely provoked depreciation of the Syrian lira and send prices of oil, food and essential goods soaring. As a result, thousands of ordinary Syrians found themselves on the verge of survival, according to reports of specialized UN humanitarian agencies.”

The ministry also stressed that the US sanctions are illegal under international law as they bypass the UN Security Council and block the import of medicine as well as fertilizers, water treatment system, construction equipment and energy generators to Syria.

Syria: US sanctions crime against humanity

Meanwhile, the Syrian Foreign Ministry condemned the US sanctions as “a crime against humanity and a flagrant violation of the international law that targets the livelihood of the Syrians.”

In a statement carried the official SANA news agency, an official source at the ministry said the Caesar Act reveals the US administration’s disregard for international norms and the level to which its officials have went down.

The Americans, the source added, are behaving like “gangs and highway robbers.”

The US government, which discriminates against and kills it own citizens, is the last one who has the right to talk about human rights, the source added.

“The US administration, [which is] talking about human rights in Syria, goes beyond the ugliest forms of lies and hypocrisy as embodied in its policy of supporting terrorism,” the source said, noting that the US sanctions amount to a new form of terrorism.

“The Syrian people and their heroic army, who have defeated the US project in defense of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, will not allow the black criminality professionals in the White House to revive their defeated project,” he emphasized.