WASHINGTON - The US Treasury Department on Wednesday announced new sanctions against Syria that it said were aimed at the financial infrastructure helping to hold up the government of President Bashar al-Assad. The department said it was designating the Commercial Bank of Syria, a Syrian state-owned financial institution, and its Lebanon-based subsidiary, Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank, under a presidential executive order that targets proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters. It also designated Syriatel, the country's largest mobile phone operator, under a separate executive order that targets Syrian officials and others responsible for human rights abuses in Syria. The actions freeze any assets held by the firms in US jurisdiction and generally prohibits US companies and individuals from doing business with them. “By exposing Syria's large commercial bank as an agent for designated Syrian and North Korean proliferators, and by targeting Syria's largest mobile phone operator for being controlled by one of the regime's most corrupt insiders, we are taking aim at the financial infrastructure that is helping provide support to Assad and his regime's illicit activities,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said in a statement. The Treasury Department said the Commercial Bank of Syria was designated for providing financial services to Syria's Scientific and Studies and Research Center (SSRC) and North Korea's Tanchon Commercial Bank, which was listed in 2005 for the support of weapons of mass destruction proliferation. Syriatel is owned and run by Rami Makhluf, a powerful Syrian business and “regime insider” who was targeted under another US executive order in 2008 for aiding the public corruption of Syrian regime officials and benefiting from that, the Treasury Department said.
