The U.S. Caesar Act only targets the Bashar Assad regime, not Syrians themselves, said Anas al-Abdah, president of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, a coalition of opposition groups.
"The Caesar Act exclusively targets the interests of the ruling gang (Syrian regime), its security branches, the major criminals, and all of those countries, institutions and people who support them and deprives them of a veto that has been impeding the Security Council," al-Abdah told Anadolu Agency (AA).
"The act does not apply to food or medical supplies and has nothing to do with relief aid in any way. It was originally issued under the title ‘Protection of Syrian Civilians,’ and it is a way to put pressure on the regime and its allies to push them toward a political solution that ends the tragedy of the Syrian people," he added.
On Dec. 20, 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 into law as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020. The act aims to prevent Assad's normalization without accountability for human rights abuses.
The Caesar Act is named after a military forensic photographer codenamed "Caesar" who leaked photos of people tortured to death in Assad prisons in 2014. The act came into force as of June 17.
The first batch of designations targets 39 people or entities, including Bashar Assad personally as well as his wife Asma Assad – the first time she has been hit by U.S. sanctions.
Under the law, any assets in the U.S. will be frozen. Bashar Assad has been under U.S. sanctions since he began to crush an uprising in 2011.
Syria's war has devastated the country's economy since 2011, plunging 80% of its people into poverty, according to the United Nations. Despite relative quiet in the country's remaining battlefields, early 2020 has only seen the situation worsen. Much of the economy in regime-held areas shuttered in March to prevent the spread of the pandemic. The World Food Programme (WFP) said food prices had doubled in a year to an all-time high across Syria. Over that same period, Syrians in regime-held areas have faced fuel crises, a plummeting Syrian pound on the black market and steep price hikes. Damascus has blamed Western sanctions for its struggling economy.
Regarding the relationship between the economic crisis that is besieging the regime and the Caesar Act, al-Abdah said: "The deterioration that afflicted the Syrian economy is not new. It was in decline 50 years ago. When Assad the father (Hafez Assad) seized power, the dollar was at 3.90 liras, and now the price reached 3,500 liras today."
"The party (the regime) that has deprived the Syrian people of their rights and freedom for decades and has continued to kill, displace and arrest Syrians for 10 years is responsible for all the damage inflicted on Syria, including the economy," al-Abdah said.
Roughly half of Syria's population has been displaced by violence, with millions seeking refuge in neighboring countries, including Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
Al-Abdah also talked about the signed economic agreements between the regime, Russia and Iran, saying, "the agreements that the regime is signing while reeling (economically) are extremely dangerous because it (the regime) not only destroyed Syria's present but rather seeks to destroy its future and confiscate the capabilities of future generations."
Regime in difficult place
"We are working to review and audit all agreements and treaties signed by the illegal regime and evaluate their impact on the present and future of Syria, and this gang is in a phase of collapse, and what we are witnessing today is tantamount to the birth of a new Syria – Syria's freedom, dignity and prosperity," al-Abdah said.
On the protests taking place in some regions inside Syria, including Sweida governorate in southern Syria, al-Abdah said, "The revolution of the Syrians was and still is a revolution of freedom and dignity and a revolution for a better future, and everyone who follows the slogans raised by the demonstrators in their protests today understands without any doubt that it is an extension of the 2011 protests."
Security forces of the Assad regime responded to a protest in Sweida on June 15 by beating and arresting protesters demonstrating against the regime’s failure to address the country’s economic collapse.
"People are protesting because they can barely afford to eat," Human Rights Watch said last week, condemning the arrests and beatings of protesters.
With the world focused on combating the coronavirus pandemic, the Syrian regime has struggled to support the battered economy. After nearly a decade of war, the country is crumbling under the weight of yearslong Western sanctions, regime corruption, infighting, a pandemic and an economic downslide made worse by the financial crisis in Lebanon – Syria’s main link with the outside world.
During the protests, people have demanded the removal of Assad as well as an end to foreign intervention by Russia and Iran.