US announces visa restrictions on 14 Assad regime officials

Announcement falls on International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances

A protester places, during a demonstration in Berlin in 2022, portraits of Syrians believed to have been detained or forcibly disappeared by the Syrian government. AFP

The US is imposing sanctions against 14 Syrian officials due to their alleged involvement in enforced disappearances in the country, the State Department announced on Friday.

The department said the officials, who were not identified, have been involved in repressing the rights of people in Syria, including involvement in or association with enforced disappearances.

The restrictions are in addition to those announced by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in March for 21 other Syrian officials.

The State Department said more than 96,000 men, women and children have been forcibly disappeared in the country to repress “real and perceived” criticism.

“On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the United States stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of enforced disappearance, as well as their families, and is taking action to promote accountability for this cruel abuse,” it added.

The US has enacted various sanctions against Syrian officials and entities, in addition to visa restrictions, since the popular uprisings and ensuing government crackdown spiralled into a devastating civil war in 2011.

Unlike other targeted sanctions visa restrictions do not include asset freezes, neither do they block a person's financial transactions. They are also often confidential.

But under the measures, the sanctioned person is unable to obtain a visa to the US or retain an existing one.

“Since the uprisings began in March 2011, the US government has intensely pursued calibrated sanctions to deprive the regime of the resources it needs to continue violence against civilians and to pressure the Syrian regime to allow for a democratic transition as the Syrian people demand,” the State Department has said of the targeted measures.

On Thursday, Iran’s ambassador to the UN Amir Saied Iravani, during a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, called on the US to lift its sanctions against Syria, saying the measures prolonged the conflict and intensified the suffering of the country's people.