New law set to turn up financial pressure on Bashar Assad

Excerpt

Even a polarized Congress can agree that tougher sanctions on Syria’s Assad regime are in the national interest. In a bipartisan vote, the Senate voted 77-23 last week for passage of the Caesar Act, a sanctions bill named for the Syrian military photographer who risked his life to expose the horrors of Bashar Assad’s torture chambers. The bill passed the House last month on a voice vote and the White House signaled its support last November.

[…]

Turning up the pressure on Assad is both a strategic necessity and a moral imperative.

David Adesnik is director of research and a Syria analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow him on Twitter @adesnik.