The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions against four Ministers of the Syrian government, as well as two entities linked to the Bashar-al-Assad regime.
The Treasury designated Ministers Fahd Jassem al-Freij (Defense), Sa'ad Abdel-Salam al-Nayef (Health), Adnan Abdo Al-Sukhni (Industry), and Najm Hamad al-Ahmad (Justice) over the Syrian regime's continued violence against the Syrian people.
Fahd Jassem al-Freij was appointed Defense Minister and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Armed Forces by President Bashar al-Assad in July, 2012 following the death of his predecessor Dawood Rajiha.
Al-Freij is also being designated for his role in the commission of human rights abuses in Syria. Under his Command, the military forces have killed civilians, including by summary executions and indiscriminate air strikes, which killed even people waiting before bakeries for bread.
The Treasury Department also designated the government-owned Syrian Arab Airlines for transporting weaponry to the Assad regime; and the privately owned Al-Dunya television station for providing services to the Syrian government that include the despicable practice of airing forced confessions.
The Treasury Department said in a press release that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) has used Syrian Arab Airlines cargo flights to transport illicit cargo - including weapons and ammunition - to Syria to support the Syrian regime's violent crackdown against its own people.
Correspondents of Al-Dunya and official Syrian television allegedly conducted interviews that were not broadcast, but were delivered to Syrian intelligence personnel who used them to arrest interviewees who refuted the reports of Syrian authorities.
After ransacking and storming farms in Harasta, Syrian government forces planted weapons and ammunition and brought in an Al-Dunya crew to falsely portray the location as a weapons depot. Correspondents from Al-Dunya and Syrian television accompanied Syrian military intelligence units to interview detainees. The detainees were interviewed after being tortured and threatened with death to force them to say what the Syrian government wanted, the press release said.
It said that U.S. nationals were prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the individuals and entities designated, and added that their assets subject to U.S. jurisdiction were frozen.
Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said the "Treasury will continue to use all of the tools at our disposal to expose and disrupt the financial networks of those responsible for the Syrian government's egregious campaign to suppress its people."
He vowed that Washington was "determined to target activity contributing to the abhorrent humanitarian situation in Syria -whether by overseeing the Assad government's indiscriminate killing of civilians, shipping weapons to the Syrian government, abusing positions of trust to supply intelligence to the regime, or disseminating the regime's propaganda."
To date, the United States has imposed sanctions on the Syrian government, including its Central Bank and oil companies, and more than 100 individuals and entities for human rights abuses and suppression of peaceful protests against the Assad regime that began more than two years ago.
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