State Dept: Sanctions Directed At Syrian Government, Not Its People

The State Department stated Thursday that economic sanctions on Syria are intended to put pressure on the ruling regime, and are not directed at the Syrian people.

In response to a question at Friday’s daily press briefing, spokesperson Mark Toner that the United States’ intensified sanctions on Syria were meant to put “direct pressure on the regime,” and “prevent new arms” from reaching the country, now in the ninth month of an increasingly violent uprising.

The European Union, Syria’s northern neighbor Turkey, and the Arab League have all followed the United States’ lead in imposing sanctions on Syria.  A report in the New York Times Friday cited estimates from analysts in Damascus that, partly as a result of the sanctions, unemployment in Syria has risen to 22 percent, and the Syrian economy may shrink by as much as 20 percent this year.

Nevertheless, food sales are up in the country, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem has said, “We have no fear that people will starve or freeze.”

In testimony on the U.S.’ Syria policy on November 11, the department’s Near East Secretary Jeffrey Feltman pledged to “relentlessly pursue our …strategy of…financially strangling the regime,” until Syrian President Bashar al-Assad steps aside.

At the same time, Feltman claimed that the Syrian regime’s “ineptitude” was “driving Syria’s economy over a cliff,” and urged Europe and the Arab states to “increase their pressure on the regime now, before Bashar al-Assad precipitates a complete collapse of the Syrian economy.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, estimated yesterday that over 4,000 civilians have died in the Syrian government’s crackdown on protests, 950 in November alone.

Pillay characterizes the conflict in Syria as a civil war, citing a growing number of violent opposition attacks on government forces.  Toner refused to use the term “civil war” Thursday, claiming that there is “no equality” between the “terrible violence” carried out by government forces and “isolated incidents” of violence from the opposition.

Toner did state that the U.S. opposed “any violence” in Syria, and agreed that President Assad has “put his country on a very dangerous path.”

Toner also referred to a report on Syria released today by the UN’s Human Rights Council, describing the human rights abuses by government forces detailed in the report as “shocking and disgusting.”

“Assad knows the way to end this, and that is to step aside,” Toner declared.