The legislation imposes fresh sanctions on entities conducting business with the Syrian government and its military and intelligence agencies.
[2][3] The House Committee Report containing the Caesar provision passed the Senate on December 17, 2019, with bipartisan support from both chambers of United States Congress.
Hence, the sanctions would mainly target providing goods, services, technology, information, or any support that would expand local production in the field of natural gas, oil and its derivatives.
[14] In May 2020, the Syrian authorities imposed heavy taxes on president's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, and seized his assets in order to find resources prior to the implementation of Caesar Act.
The US Government stated via US Envoy James Jeffrey that the collapse would be exacerbated due to sanctions, and offered to help President Bashar al-Assad if he agreed to meet certain conditions for political reform.
[16] On June 10, hundreds of protesters returned to the streets of As-Suwayda for the fourth consecutive day, rallying against the collapse of the country's economy, as the Syrian pound plummeted to 3,000 to the dollar within the past week.
[17] On June 11, Prime Minister Imad Khamis was dismissed by President Bashar al-Assad, amid anti-government protests over deteriorating economic conditions.
[18] The new lows for the Syrian currency, and the dramatic increase in sanctions, began to appear to raise new threats to the survival of the Assad government.
[29] An analyst, Julien Barnes-Dacey, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “Assad is absolutely the prime driver of Syria’s ongoing collapse.
[But] the US position now appears to be fundamentally driven by great power politics and the goal of ensuring that Russia and Iran can’t claim a win.
My fear is that Caesar will achieve the exact opposite of its stated goals, fuelling the worst impulses of the Syrian regime and wider conflict.
The bill would have authorized the Secretary of State to support entities that are collecting and preserving evidence for the eventual prosecution of those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria from March 2011 to the present, and would have required the President to report to Congress on the names of those who are responsible for or complicit in gross violations of human rights of the Syrian people.
[36] The UN mandates that humanitarian aid to Syria, even by non-governmental organizations (NGO's) be provided through the Syrian government, led by Assad, who is alleged to have misused it.