The President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelensky, announced sanctions against the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, in a decree published this Saturday that also establishes restrictive measures for other senior officials in his regime.
Measure blocks any assets that the Syrian regime may have in Ukraine and prohibits any commercial transaction in which it may be involved, actions that will be in force for a period of ten yearsas reported by the portal Kyiv Independent.
This new battery of sanctions also affects the Prime Minister of Syria, Hussein Arnusand the Foreign Minister, Faisal al Mikdadas well as 141 entities and 300 individuals from Syria and Russia.
Bashar al-Assad visited Russia this week to convey to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putinhe Damascus support for Moscow regarding the illegal invasion of Ukraine where, according to him, the Russian Armed Forces they face “new and old Nazis” from Europe.
In the words of the Syrian dictator, talking about Nazis in Ukraine is justified because “The West accepted the old Nazis in their own land” in the middle of the last century, and now “supports them again” in the context of the war, according to statements collected by the agency TASS.
Ukraine severed diplomatic ties with Syria last year after the regime Bashar al-Assad recognize the Russian-occupied areas in the east of the country as independent states.
Russia has undertaken a military campaign in Syria since September 2015, joining Iran in allowing the Assad dictatorship to fight opposition armed groups and regain control of most of the country.
While the Russian government is currently concentrating most of its military resources in Ukraine, Moscow has maintained its military presence in Syria, leaving its warplanes and soldiers at its bases there.
Moscow has given strong political support to Assad in the United Nations and has actively mediated to help mend his government’s ties with regional powers.
Some Arab countries that in the past have called for Assad’s ouster have sent aid after the catastrophic earthquake on February 6 that rocked Turkey and Syria, which left more than 50,000 dead.
In 2020, the Syrian regime and its entourage had already been sanctioned by USA for human rights abuses.
The sanctions are the result of legislation known as the Caesar Law for the Protection of Syrian Civiliansnamed after the pseudonym of a Syrian policeman who handed over photographs of thousands of victims of torture by the al-Assad dictatorship.
That same year, the French court sentenced Rifaat al Assaduncle of Bashar al Assad to four years in prison for money laundering.
The judges found Rifaat al-Assad guilty of the crimes of money laundering in an organized gang and embezzlement of Syrian funds between 1996 and 2016.
(With information from Europa Press, The Associated Press and EFE)
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Source-www.infobae.com