US announces new visa restrictions on Syrian officials over rights abuses

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US on Friday announced new visa restrictions targeting current and former Syrian government officials and other individuals who were accused of being responsible for or complicit in the repression of Syrians through violence and severe human rights abuses.

In a statement, State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has taken action to impose visa restrictions on 10 government officials and their immediate family members due to their involvement in serious human rights violations.

Miller said the new restrictions supplement the visa restrictions announced earlier, which targeted 11 Syrian regime officials and their immediate families in December 2023.

"We will not normalize relations with the Assad regime absent authentic progress towards a lasting political solution in line with UNSCR 2254," Miller said.

"We reaffirm our unwavering support for the Syrian people, including in their ongoing peaceful demands for freedom and dignity," he said, adding that the US will continue to seek and pursue visa restrictions against.

This year marks the thirteenth anniversary of the March 15 popular uprising in 2011, which began when a group of primary school students in Syria's southern city of Daraa inscribed anti-Bashar al-Assad regime slogans on a school wall.

The civil war that ensued claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians. UN officials have documented war crimes including the use of chemical weapons, starvation, deportations, blockades, arbitrary arrests, and torture.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to leave their homes while 7.2 million remained internally displaced within the country, which before 2011 had a population of around 22-23 million. Türkiye alone hosts approximately 3.7 million of these people – more than any other country in the world.