USA sanctions Syria for buying oil from IS group

Haswani was sanctioned by the European Union back in March under similar accusations, which he appealed.

The measures, the latest round of sanctions related to the ongoing civil war in Syria, freeze any US assets and prohibit Americans from transactions with the targets.

Sanctions were imposed on George Haswani, a Syrian national, and his company, HESCO Engineering and Construction Company.

The USA imposed sanctions on Syria’s central bank over a decade ago for its alleged involvement in money laundering. Last year, a US Treasury official said Assad’s government had started buying oil from the terrorist group, which now controls significant territory in both Syria and Iraq.

The administration has been criticised for doing too little to go after Isis’s oil infrastructure.

The worldwide coalition over the weekend destroyed 283 oil tankers in the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor near the border with Iraq, the Independent reported. Video of the strikes was posted online.

Russia, a longtime ally to the Assad regime, began launching airstrikes in Syria in September, independent of the worldwide coalition. But after ISIS claimed responsibility for the bombing of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, Russia stepped up its air campaign against ISIS targets.

“Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was designated today for materially assisting and acting for or on behalf of the Government of Syria, Central Bank of Syria” and two central bank officials, the Treasury statement said.

Ilyumzhinov has been the president of the World Chess Federation, known as FIDE, since 1995 and is also a former Russian regional leader.

“The United States will continue targeting the finances of all those enabling Assad to continue inflicting violence on the Syrian people” Adam Szubin acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence said in the statement.

The third individual targeted was Mudalal Khuri, who allegedly represents Syrian regime business and financial interests in Russian Federation and who owns five of the designated entities.

A Russian bank and other individuals and companies actively working with the Syrian government were also designated by the USA government Wednesday.

The United States has used financial and military tools to target the finances of Islamic State, which this month took credit for a coordinated assault on Paris that left 130 people dead.

The Treasury Department’s sanctions procedures resemble law-enforcement investigations, in that officials release findings as they compile evidence.