US: Assad regime could face sanctions if it blocks political process

The United States will pursue “a strategy of isolation,” including sanctions, with its allies if Bashar al-Assad holds up a political process aimed at ending Syria’s seven-year war, a top US diplomat for Syria told Reuters on Friday (Sep. 28).

Jim Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria, said Washington would work with countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East to impose tough international sanctions if the Assad regime failed to cooperate on rewriting the Syrian constitution as a prelude to elections.

“If the regime does that, we believe that then we can go after it the way we went after Iran before 2015 - with really tough international sanctions,” Jeffrey said, referring to secondary sanctions against Tehran for its nuclear program.

He added: “Even if the UN Security Council won’t pass them we will just do it through the European Union, we will do it through our Asian allies, and then we will make it our business to make life as miserable as possible for that flopping cadaver of a regime and let the Russians and Iranians, who made this mess, get out of it.”

President Donald Trump has twice authorized US air strikes against Assad regime targets as punishment for alleged chemical weapons use.

“It is not off the table because the regime is stuck with only half the territory and population of Syria under its control, and the lowest hanging fruit is Idlib because the other areas you deal with the US directly and Turkey directly,” said Jeffrey.

Jeffrey has been charged by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to oversee Washington’s role in a political process as a US-led coalition cleans up the last remaining ISIS militants.