Posted on 06/18/2020 5:35:02 PM PDT by BeauBo
Syria devalued its currency by 44% on Wednesday, announcing a new official exchange rate for the pound amid chaos in the market, hours before new U.S. sanctions aimed at cutting off revenue for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government took effect.
The sanctions, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, are the toughest set of measures to be imposed on Syria yet, preventing anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or from participating in the country’s reconstruction...
Syria’s already troubled economy has sharply deteriorated, prices have soared and the national currency, the Syrian pound, collapsed in recent weeks, partly because of fears that the sanctions would further isolate the war-ravaged country...
The Trump administration says the sanctions aim to push the Syrian government toward a U.N.-led political solution to the conflict.
This week the Syrian currency dropped to a record 3,500 pounds to the dollar on the black market — compared to around 1,000 for $1 at the end of 2019. Some staples such as sugar, rice and medicine are becoming hard to find and some people have started stockpiling food supplies out of fear their prices could increase.
Opposition-controlled areas run by Turkey-backed rebels have already started relying on Turkish liras, including for the sale of bread, as the Syrian currency continued to slide. Nearly 4 million people live in the areas outside of government control in northwestern Syria...
The economic meltdown presents a serious challenge for Assad, who survived more than nine years of war but rules over a crumbling infrastructure and ravaged economy. The hardship has triggered new protests in government-controlled areas, including some where angered residents even called for his downfall.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
That's got to hurt. I'm sure we have their attention now, about negotiating a peace.
Syria Ping.
Big pressure applied.
Big pressure applied and no American blood spilled. Awesome.
more pesos for your money
everybody wins
We dont want peace.
“ We” just want Assad gone. ‘We” have torn that country apart and will never let it rebuild and unify. Chaos serves certain interests much better.
How the hell do we pass a law preventing anyone in the world from doing business with Syria? And a much less important question is WHY?
“How the hell do we pass a law preventing anyone in the world from doing business with Syria?”
Basically, we make it us or them - Do business with them, and you are banned from the US. US businesses are directly prohibited under US law. Sanctions can extend to criminalizing the sanctioned parties, so that their assets and accounts (within US or allied control) might be frozen or confiscated. I’m not sure how far the US sanctions go, but they must be stiff to make this big of an impact.
“WHY?”
The Assad Regime has long been hostile to the USA and Israel. That Government harbored and supported terrorists, like Carlos the Jackal, Hizbollah terrorists who planned and conducted the Beirut Marine Barracks bombing, and jihadis who killed our troops in Iraq.
They are now in a historically weakened state, and we are insisting that its time for them to come to Jesus (figuratively speaking). They need to put their extremist past behind them (the ruling Ba’ath Party is the last ruling Party on Earth modeled on the principles of the Nazi Party - socialism based on race, rather than class).
These sanctions may prevent them from securing a military victory to re-establish control over the country, unless the USA gets what it wants (no more aggressive Nazi Terrorist crap, and a good deal for our Kurdish allies in Syria). The Assad family may have to retire to a compound on the Russian Coast of the Black Sea, and the Ba’ath Party officials may need to re-brand.
Basically, we want to shape the post conflict conditions to favor our interests. We don’t want a militantly Anti-American and Anti-Israeli dictatorship established for decades to come.
Oh please. Assad is a son of the enlightenment compared to the Sunnis we call “allies”. The Saudis and Gulf States were ISIS.
In Assad’s Syria a woman could drive a car, marry or divorce, and dance on Latakia beach in a swimsuit while drinking locally made wine. You could be a Jew at one of the two synagogues of leftovers who didn’t leave for Israel. You could be any variety of Christian.
Assad is literally the good guy IF the alternative is a Sunni lead rebel movement or a UN created government. You need to quit drinking the Mattis and State Department Koolaid.
No, but the name comes from a funny story about a Rhinoceros, in a place you could probably walk to from there.
The economic meltdown presents a serious challenge for Assad, who survived more than nine years of war but rules over a crumbling infrastructure and ravaged economy.
Yeah, in the same way that the foot-shooting Demwit governors / despots are seriously challenged and deeply concerned about the economies of their states.
“Assad is literally the good guy IF the alternative is a Sunni lead rebel movement”
Only if the alternative is something worse.
By that standard, anything goes.
They are both bad. Another being worse, does not make the Ba’ath (Arab Nazi) Party, ally of Iran and Russia, good.
Assad, and his father, and his bureaucracy, actively participated in murdering American civilians, and attacking and killing American Military. Maybe that fact can get through the haze of whatever Kool-aid you have been drinking.
They are America’s enemies. The fundamental ideology of the Ba’ath Party enshrines that enmity.
If you were in Baghdad during the time that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (Z Man) was killing American servicemen, and making his terroristic snuff videos sawing off the heads of live captives with hunting knives, then you too were within the targets of the Assad Government.
They actively provided safe haven and supported Zarqawi and his organization, to attack Americans (Until he declared war on the Shi’ites).
The Assad Ba’ath Party remains a State sponsor of anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorist groups to this day.
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Thank you for the ping, my friend.
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