The US Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned Iran’s national police and Syrian security forces for alleged human rights abuses inside Syria, Dow Jones reported.
The sanctions come in response to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on dissenters that has killed 1,400 people in three months.
The sanctions target the Syria Political Security Directorate, one of four major branches of the country’s security services, and the head of Syrian Air Force Intelligence. The agency also laid sanctions on the Law Enforcement Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its top two leaders for allegedly providing support to Assad’s government.
“Today’s action builds on the administration’s efforts to pressure Assad and his regime to end the use of wanton violence and begin transitioning to a system that ensures the universal rights of the Syrian people,” Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism David Cohen said in a statement.
“We are exposing further Iran’s provision of its military and security forces to support the Syrian government’s ongoing violence and repression of the Syrian people,” Cohen said.
The sanctions bar U.S. citizens and companies from doing business with the designees and freeze any assets they may have in the U.S.
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