{"id":1695,"date":"2011-08-10T19:38:36","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T19:38:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-08-10T19:38:36","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T19:38:36","slug":"us-slaps-sanctions-on-syrias-largest-commercial-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/us-slaps-sanctions-on-syrias-largest-commercial-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"US Slaps Sanctions on Syria\u2019s Largest Commercial Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"
ADO-World.org<\/strong>
\nAugust 10, 2011<\/p>\n

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Syria’s largest commercial bank and largest mobile phone operator, stepping up the pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

The moves targeting the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, its Lebanon-based subsidiary and telecoms company Syriatel are the latest taken by Washington against Syria over its crackdown on pro-democracy protests.<\/p>\n

The US Treasury said it was “taking aim at the financial infrastructure that is helping provide support to Assad and his regime’s illicit activities.”<\/p>\n

The move freezes the US assets of the businesses targeted and prohibits US entities from engaging in any business dealings with them, the Treasury said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Treasury Under-Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen charged that the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria was “an agent for designated Syrian and North Korean proliferators.”<\/p>\n

Its subsidiary, the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, was also targeted by the new sanctions.<\/p>\n

He added that Syriatel had been singled out “for being controlled by one of the regime’s most corrupt insiders.”<\/p>\n

The Treasury said the Damascus-based Commercial Bank of Syria, which has about 50 branches, was “providing financial services to Syria’s Scientific Studies and Research Center, as well as North Korea’s Tanchon Commercial Bank.”<\/p>\n

Those two institutions have allegedly supported Syria and North Korea’s efforts to spread weapons of mass destruction, the Treasury statement said.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama signed an executive order in May, imposing targeted sanctions on Assad and several high-ranking Syrian government officials for their bloody crackdown on the country’s pro-democracy demonstrators.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the US State Department pressed for more international sanctions against Syria, conceding it has abandoned a bid to engage Damascus.<\/p>\n

“It is deeply regrettable that President Assad does not seem to be hearing the increasingly loud voice of the international community, a voice of concern that is now growing in strength, in volume and in number of countries making their views known,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.<\/p>\n

Russia has taken a tougher line against Syria since it sent tanks into the revolt hub of Hama. Assad has pledged to pursue a relentless battle against “terrorist groups” he claims are behind the protests.
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ADO-World.org August 10, 2011 WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Syria’s largest commercial bank and largest mobile phone operator, stepping up the pressure on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad. The moves targeting the state-owned Commercial Bank of Syria, its Lebanon-based subsidiary and telecoms company Syriatel are the latest taken …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-syria"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2011\/08\/cbs1bank.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ado-world.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}