Americas

Americas

U.S. slaps sanctions on 29 Syrian officials

18 July 2012 20:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The United States imposed sanctions against 29 senior Syrian officials on Wednesday as the world was scrambling for ways to end the 16-month violence and bloodshed in the Arab country, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Syria’s ministers of finance, justice and health and the governor of the central bank were among these officials targeted by the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Meanwhile, five more companies that were accused of being used to advance the Syrian government’s proliferation efforts and another allegedly owned by a "corrupt crony" of President Bashar al-Assad were also on the new U.S. sanction list.

Since Syria was plunged into turmoil in March 2011, Washington has slapped sanctions on more than 100 individuals and entities as well as the entire Syrian government, including its central bank and oil companies.