'Rose of the Desert' Asma al-Assad, Syria's elite hit with new sanctions

Washington: The US has imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife as the Trump administration increases pressure on the regime in an effort to end its nine-year civil war.

The State Department said it was imposing 39 sanction designations "as the beginning of what will be a sustained campaign of economic and political pressure to deny the Assad regime revenue". At the top of the list: Assad and his wife, Asma, who was described by Vogue as Syria's "Rose in the Desert" a month before her husband began violently cracking down on peaceful protesters in 2011.

Asma Assad, a former London investment banker, was designated for the first time by the US government which described her as "one of Syria's most notorious war profiteers".

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, right, listens to his wife Asma during a visit to India in 2008.Credit: AP

Assad's sister Bushra, his brother and military commander Maher, and other members of the extended Assad family, senior military leaders and business executives have also been targeted.

"This conflict needs to be brought to an end," James Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria engagement, said. "We will use the tools provided to us in this sanctions legislation and other sanctions authorities to drive home to not only the Assad regime, but to those who support him, be they governments — and you know the two states we're talking about — or be they individuals, banks, whatever, that we're coming after you."

Those two states are Russia and Iran, which have provided military support to Assad as he has regained control of most Syrian territory but are in no shape to help him financially as he looks out on a landscape of economic ruin.

"Many more sanctions will come until Assad and his regime stop their needless, brutal war," Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a tweet.

The sanctions came into force on Wednesday under the Caesar Act, which has been years in the making and is named after a Syrian defector who documented horrific human rights abuses carried out by the Assad regime.

Separately, the Treasury Department said it has imposed penalties on 24 individuals, companies and government agencies that "are actively supporting the corrupt reconstruction efforts" of Assad.

Syria's Foreign Ministry said the measures were a violation of international law and showed that US officials were behaving like "gangs and bandits." The Assad government also accused the US of hypocrisy, saying that in light of the recent domestic unrest across America, the United States should be "the last to utter words about human rights."

Asma al-Assad speaks to young women in 2013.Credit: Syrian Presidency Instagram

Asma Assad has increasingly sought to centralise all charity work under her aegis and the Syria Trust for Development, where most foreign aid for postwar reconstruction is channelled.

"Today's designations send a clear message that no individual or business should enter into business with or otherwise enrich such a vile regime," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

Nearly half of the designated entities are construction companies involved in development projects, primarily in Damascus, the Syrian capital, on land expropriated from displaced Syrians.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, centre left, and his wife Asma, centre right, talk with Syrian artists during their visit to one of the tunnels dug by rebels while they were under siege in Jobar, near the capital Damascus.Credit: AP

"To make way for five-star real estate, the regime has evicted and razed the property of tens of thousands of residents from areas in Damascus that were until recently working-class neighbourhoods sympathetic to the opposition," the Treasury Department said in a statement.

"Treasury's action today exposes individuals and entities, including private-public partnerships, that seek to profit from this displacement and reconstruction."

Besides rights abuses, those targeted also were hit for obstructing a peaceful political resolution to the long-running conflict.

Muhammad Khalifa, a victim of a bombing, at his school in the town of Jisr al-Shughur, Idlib province.Credit: AP

The announcement was widely expected, and before it, Syria devalued its currency by 44 per cent and announced a new official exchange rate for the pound.

Syria's troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the pound had collapsed in recent weeks, partly because of fears that the sanctions would further isolate the country.

Experts say the new sanctions will be a heavy blow to a nation where more than 80 per cent of the people already live in poverty, according to the United Nations. Syrian government officials have called it "economic terrorism."

Bloomberg; The Telegraph; London, AP