“Caesar Act” in regime-controlled areas: ordinary Syrians are victims of severe sanctions and Al-Assad government is trying to improve its image
It seems that the impacts of the new package of US sanctions under the name of the “Caesar Act” for the protection of civilians will not only force the Syrian regime to change its behaviour, but will lead to a further deterioration of the economic and living conditions of the entire Syrian people.
Stifling sanctions
The law provides for the punishment of Syrian regime’s enablers, including companies, individuals, and countries that help the regime militarily, financially or technologically.
The Caesar Act also mandates sanctions on those providing reconstruction aid in Syria.
The sanctions will hit the Central Bank of Syria for possible involvement in money laundering operations.
The law obliges the president of the United States to impose sanctions on countries allied to the regime of the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and to comprise a list of leaders and officials of the Syrian regime on whom the sanctions will be imposed for human rights violations.
The law allows these sanctions to be lifted if the regime complies with the conditions set by law.
Although the regime is already under U.S. and European economic sanctions, which Damascus has managed to overcome , the new sanctions package is more stringent. The law expands its punitive measures against any real or legal person, Syrian or foreign, who deals with the Syrian government. The new law differs from previous ones in several ways:
– The law is associated with the U.S. National Defense Act, which shows the importance of the Syrian issue to the U.S. administration, and that it is now linked to U.S. national security.
– Crippling the Syrian regime both internally and externally by isolating it from its enablers, and forcing it to change its behavior in line with the American vision.
– Undermining the Syrian economy by targeting its core financial institution, the Central Bank of Syria, its associated networks, infrastructure, military factories and halting reconstruction.
– The timing of such sanctions comes at a time when Syria is suffering from internal political divisions, especially as the rift widens between businessman Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of the Syrian regime’s president Bashar al-Assad. And also, Al-Assad’s decision to dismiss Prime Minister Imad Khamis on June 11, 2020 is a solid indication of the economic collapse and outright opposition that poses a real challenge to the regime’s legitimacy.
– The law is an explicit disclosure of Washington’s desire to single out the Syrian issue and to exclude any international or regional powers, particularly Russia and Iran.
A double suffering
Since before the law came into effect on June 17, 2020, the value of the Syrian pound plummeted to unprecedented levels against the US dollar. On June 8, 2020, the Syrian pound’s buying rate recorded 3400 SYL against the dollar and 3,600 pounds for the selling rate. This collapse is the worst in the history of the Syrian currency.
On 17 June 2020, the date on which the law came into effect, the selling exchange rate reached a minimum of 2,675 SYL and a maximum of 2,825 SYL for buying exchange rate on the black market.
On the other hand, markets in Latakia, Homs, Hama, Damascus, Daraa, Al-Sweida and Tartus provinces have seen a significant rise in the prices of all goods, in addition to the disappearance and unavailability of a large number of goods and commodities. Furthermore, most shops have been closed and many internal remittance and exchange companies temporarily suspended trading. Prices varied considerably between the areas of the provinces controlled by the regime.
The Syrian Observatory monitored significant differences in commodity prices before and after announcing the implementation of the “Caesar Act” in mid-December 2019. The price of rice rose from 600 to 2,300 pounds, sugar from 250 to 1,650 pounds, milk from 275 to 4,500 pounds, and the price of chicken rose to 3,000 and 3,200 pounds, where it was sold at 2,100 pounds before.
Meanwhile, the prices of medications for chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease, diabetes and stress, and some children’s medicines have increased, and some items have disappeared from pharmacies in Damascus and in regime-controlled areas.
The Ministry of Health has taken no responsibility for the disappearance of medicines, attributing the reason to the closure of dozens of pharmaceutical factories in Damascus and countryside, and the permanent suspension of production, which increased the pressure on the rest of the factories, forcing a large number of citizens to buy the necessary medicines on a daily basis from the black market at double prices.
The worsening economic conditions triggered protests against the regime, holding it responsible for starving and impoverishing the Syrians.
On 6 June 2020, residents of al-Druze-majority Al-Sweida in southern Syria held protests against the deteriorating and difficult living conditions, chanting anti-regime slogans and demanding its overthrow, the departure of Bashar al-Assad and the expulsion of Russia and Iran from Syria.
On 9 June 2020, SOHR eyewitnesses reported seeing dozens of residents holding a protest in Tafas city in the western countryside of Daraa. The demonstrators demanded the toppling of the regime and the release of detainees.
On 11 June 2020, the Syrian Observatory monitored demonstrations in the city of Jassim, north of Daraa, holding the regime responsible for the Syrian pound’s free fall.
On the first day of the sanctions implementation, regime forces arrested ten protesters during a demonstration in Al-Sweida. The demonstration saw clashes with regime loyalists, resulted in the injury of a number of demonstrators.
Regime measures and decisions to counter US sanction
The Syrian regime adopts a series of tactics and mechanisms that may help to confront or at least mitigate the impact of the “Caesar Act” sanctions on its areas of control, some of the measures include:
– Obliging wholesalers and retail traders in the markets in all provinces of the regime to maintain regular registries of their materials and goods, stressing the need to abide by the circulation of invoices.
– Expanding austerity measures will not only be limited to the poor, who make up more than 83 per cent of Syrians, but will also include the affluent minority.
– Efforts to stabilize the dollar exchange rate in transactions and control the black market. On 14 June 2020, the regime managed to reduce the exchange rate of the dollar, after a major crackdown on exchangers and black market workers and the confiscation of large amounts of foreign currencies.
– Control the prices of goods by purchasing vegetables and fruits directly from farmers and selling them at the cost price, and increasing the imported basic materials sold by smart card at the subsidized price.
– Restarting the production cycle in Syria on the agricultural and industrial levels, and turning al-Ghab area in Hama governorate into a vital place for food production, and supporting factories that have been destroyed or vandalized.
– Implementing a package of measures to support the pharmaceutical industry by reducing foreign exchange commissions, which contribute to minimize costs.
– Efforts to resume support particularly through secret deals with a number of countries which are already under sanctions.
A dilemma! Caesar Act’s intended and unintended consequences
The “Caesar Act” package of sanctions seems to be a challenging equation to solve, and it is inconceivable that such sanctions, which directly impact the already difficult and deplorable living conditions of Syrians, will ensure the protection and well-being of the people of Syria, and that they are limited to, or punishing only the regime and its associates.
Even if these sanctions do save the Syrians from the regime’s brutality and oppression, it will be impossible to ensure in any way that such sanctions will lift them out of hunger, poverty and ultimately slow death.
As ordinary people will be tremendously affected by these sanctions, the Syrian Observatory calls on the international community to save them from hunger and poverty and looming starvation that haunt them.