That’s right there is still a major conflict going on in Syria….it has been push to Page 3 with all the pandemic and protests….but make no mistake it is still as volatile as ever.

And Trump is gonna use one of his favorite things in the whole world….sanction…..to punish Syria.

More specifically the Caesar Act….

The Caesar Act, passed in Congress last year, took effect on Wednesday. It seeks to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad into negotiations with Washington, while preventing foreign allies from assisting the reconstruction of Syria’s devastated cities and economy. 

It targets the supporters of the Assad government in politics, business and banking. From Russia to Europe, the Gulf, Lebanon and beyond, the new sanctions may freeze assets and trigger travel bans and arrest warrants against violators.

All that is just good and well….but our policy is not as all that as the neocons pretend……

Washington is deliberately hindering Syria’s economic and physical reconstruction as it pursues regime change in Damascus. Until Assad makes significant political compromises to his opponents, abides by U.N. Security Council Resolutions weighted against his own government, or agrees to resign — demands he has shown no willingness to consider — U.S. sanctions will remain intact and may even tighten. The 83% of Syrians already living in poverty are effectively being punished for the barbarity, corruption, and ineptitude of their government.

In addition to utilizing the power of the U.S. financial system, the Trump administration is also dipping into the U.S. military toolkit. Officially, the American people are told, U.S. troops stationed in Eastern Syria are performing counterterrorism operations against ISIS. The reality, however, is hundreds of American military personnel are being used to block Damascus and Moscow from accessing Syria’s meager oil fields. The logic is fairly straightforward: If Assad is unable to access these fields and export oil again, the financial pressure eventually will force him to offer political concessions to his Syrian adversaries. 

https://www.realclearworld.com/2020/06/16/our_syria_policy_is_broken_496391.html

All this is just the wrong policy…but not according to the Neocons….they say more and stricter sanctions will help the Syrian people…..

The collapse of the lira brought with it rapid inflation. The United Nations’ World Food Programme estimated in April that the cost of a basket of basic goods such as flour and oil had increased by 111 percent over the previous 12 months. Already impoverished by the war and reliant on foreign aid, Syrians are increasingly going hungry, even in areas where Assad’s grip has long been firm. Restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19 made the situation more dire, although the regime has begun to lift them. Last week, Assad fired Prime Minister Imad Khamis as public anger rose in areas under the regime’s control. The population of major urban centers seems resigned to Assad’s rule, but there have been unprecedented protests in the southern province of Suwayda, where demonstrators called for Assad’s ouster.

The deprivation Syrians were already enduring raises the perennial question of whether the sanctions will strike a balance between the pressure they exert on rogue regimes and the costs they inflict on civilians. In the case of Syria, the grisly evidence of systematic mass torture has minimized the extent to which elected officials on either side of the Atlantic have questioned the justice of sanctioning Assad and his accomplices. Still, there are a handful of analysts who equate the thinking behind the Caesar Act with the mentality of the Assad regime.

Sanctions Against Syria Will Help, Not Harm, Civilians

Once again the Neocons prove that their only concern is regime change and NOT the good of the Syrian people.

Slapping Assad on the pee-pee does nothing to help the Syrian people that are hungry without health care or any benefits…..

These sanction are effecting more than Syria….Lebanon’s economy is tied with Syria and theirs will collapse with the Syrian….

Syria is also in economic freefall and the value of its curency plummeting. Before the war began nine years ago, $1 was equivalent to around 50 Syrian Pounds. Today, the exchange rate has $1 trading at almost 3,000 Syrian pounds. 

The collapsed financial system has made Syrians more dependent on Lebanon’s banking system, but it is facing its own financial crisis. 

With interlinked economies, the prospect of Lebanese banks dropping Syrian businesses for fear of sanction penalties has sparked concerns that the Caesar Act may worsen the situation in both countries.  

For instance, without access to Lebanese banks, goods and trading partners, the average Syrian may have no other choice but to turn to those empowered in their own country, likely Assad’s allies. 

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-caesar-act-syria-maximum-pressure-campaign

Where does all this insanity stop?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”