The UK has imposed sanctions on six allies of Syrian ruler Bashar Assad a decade after the country’s brutal civil war began.
The asset freezes and travel bans are a response to the Assad regime’s “wholesale assault” on the people of Syria, foreign secretary Dominic Raab said.
“The Assad regime has subjected the Syrian people to a decade of brutality for the temerity of demanding peaceful reform,” said Mr Raab. “Today, we are holding six more individuals from the regime to account for their wholesale assault on the very citizens they should be protecting.”
Those sanctioned include foreign minister Faisal Miqdad, presidential adviser Luna al-Shibl, and financier Yassar Ibrahim – who the Foreign Office claimed acts as a front for Assad’s hold on the Syrian economy.
Businessman Muhammad Bara’ al-Qatirji and military officers major general Malik Aliaa and major general Zaid Salah will also be hit by the asset freezes and travel bans.
On Monday Syrians are marking 10 years since peaceful protests against Assad’s government erupted in March 2011 – touching off a popular uprising that quickly turned into a full-blown civil war.
Despite a decade of fighting and a broken country, Assad remains firmly in power, having been propped up by Russia and Iran.
Syria is economically devastated and divided into three parts. An al-Qaida-linked group dominates the northwestern Idlib province, with Turkey-backed rebels controlling stretches along the Turkish border.
US-backed Syrian Kurdish forces hold around a quarter of the country in the northeast while Assad controls the rest.
The conflict has killed around half a million people and displaced half of Syria’s pre-war population of 23 million, including more than five million who are refugees, mostly in neighbouring countries.
With Assad preparing to run for a fourth seven-year presidential term in the spring, some have questioned whether he can survive the sharp economic deterioration and anger in areas under his control.
Poverty levels are now worse than at any point throughout the 10-year conflict. Long queues for petrol stations and quotas of two packs of bread a day for families show how the country is struggling for basics.
