U.S. Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey: Caesar’s Law aimed at Assad, will not affect humanitarian aid

WASHINGTON / DAMASCUS – During a virtual conference organized by the Middle East Institute on Monday, U.S. Special Representative for Syria James Jeffrey highlighted the main goal of implementing Caesar’s Law, stating that this law would not hinder the arrival of humanitarian aid to Syria.

During the conference, Jeffrey stated that the main goal of implementing Caesar’s law is to inflict real pain on the people close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“Our goal is not to destroy the Syrian economy. Assad is able to achieve that on his own, while he is carrying out excellently the task of pushing the Syrian pound into extinction and reducing the remaining gross domestic product in Syria,” Jeffrey stated.

“The implementation of the new sanctions aim at inflicting real pain on the people close to Assad and these restrictive measures will be continued as long as the authorities in Damascus do not change their policies,” he continued, indicating that these sanctions will not impede the delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria, including that reaching the areas controlled by the Syrian regime.

Jeffrey indicated that the U.S. would allocate an amount of money to provide humanitarian aid to Syria, during the conference scheduled for late June by the European Union.

On 17 June, the U.S. began implementing a series of sanctions, referred to as Caesar’s Law, according to which financial restrictions were imposed on 39 individuals and entities related to the Syrian government in Damascus, including the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad.