Washington – The United States on Wednesday sanctioned a Russian businessman and Syrian oil middleman for their roles assisting the Assad regime.
Altogether, the Treasury took action against four individuals and six entities for their support for the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime’s continuing violence against the Syrian population.
“The Syrian government is responsible for widespread brutality and violence against its own people,” Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a written statement making the announcement. “The United States will continue targeting the finances of all those enabling Assad to continue inflicting violence on the Syrian people.”
In particular, Treasury said it had designated George Haswani, a Syrian businessman, for his role of facilitating the purchase of petroleum by the Assad regime from ISIS.
The move comes at the same time the United States and its allies in the coalition have conducted a massive barrage of airstrikes against oil trucks in Syria and other parts of the oil-producing apparatus in an effort to choke of a critical part of ISIS’ revenue.
The Treasury also designated Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a Russian businessman linked to financial transactions involving Mudalal Khuri, a longtime associate of the Assad regime who has represented some of Assad’s financial interests in Russia.
A Russian bank and other individuals and companies actively working with the Syrian government were also designated by the U.S. government Wednesday.
The actions taken by Treasury freeze all of the assets inside the United States held by those sanctioned and prohibit any American from conducting transactions with them.
As reported by CNN