UK sanctions Assad allies over decade of ‘brutal’ civil war

Agencies | London

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Britain yesterday announced sanctions on six allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad, including his foreign minister and close advisers.

Those sanctioned include Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad, Assad adviser Luna Al Shibl, financier Yassar Ibrahim, businessman Muhammad Bara’ Al Qatirji, Republican Guard commander Malik Aliaa and Army Major Zaid Salah.

The measures against them include travel bans and asset freezes.

They are the first sanctions imposed by the UK against Syria following Brexit and add to the 353 sanctions put in place and carried over from the EU.

The Syrian civil war is 10 years old.

In mid-March, 2011, peaceful pro-democracy protests developed into a multi-sided conflict that sucked in world powers, killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more.

“The Assad regime has subjected the Syrian people to a decade of brutality for the temerity of demanding peaceful reform,” Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. “We are holding six more individuals from the regime to account for their wholesale assault on the very citizens they should be protecting,” Raab said.