President Obama announced on Thursday a round of sanctions issued against 18 senior officials in the Syrian government in response to a year-old United Nations report that found the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad had used chlorine weapons against citizens in 2014 and 2015.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons,” said Ned Price, spokesman for the National Security Council, in a statement Thursday. “The Assad regime’s barbaric continued attacks demonstrate its willingness to defy basic standards of human decency, its international obligations, and longstanding global norms.”
Price said the move marked “the first time the United States is sanctioning specific Syrian officials in connection with Syria’s violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.”
Although Obama said in 2012 that chemical weapons use was a “red line” for Assad that, if crossed, would prompt U.S. retaliation, the regime’s confirmed deployment of a sarin agent in 2013 did not move the Obama administration to intervene militarily.
The sanctions, issued through the Department of Treasury, will prevent the 18 Syrian officials from touching any assets they may have in the U.S. The sanctions will also prevent any Americans from doing business with those officials.
