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Hail Caesar?

“The North Wind and the Sun” is one of Aesop's Fables that teaches about the superiority of persuasion over force. In it the sun and the wind argue as to who can force a traveller to remove his cloak, for all the wind blowing the traveller holds on tight, whereas the burning heat from the sun
persuades him to take it off. In Syria almost ten years of fighting has failed to remove President Assad from power, but since June 17 the most wide-ranging U.S. sanctions ever applied against Syria have gone into effect. Could sanctions succeed where force has failed?
“The Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act”, passed into law as part of the most recent National Defense Authorization Act. Fittingly it is named after a defector who took 53,275 photographs of the bodies of detainees from two military hospitals and smuggled them out of the country. In response to the torrent of images of mutilated corpses, the head of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, stated, "the mass scale of deaths of detainees suggests that the Government of Syria is responsible for acts that amount to extermination as a crime against humanity."
If the arc of justice bends long, then a critical question is what kind of impact will the Caesar Sanctions have? In expanding sanctions to include third parties, the Caesar Act explicitly tries to raise the costs of economic engagement with the Assad regime. Already the Coronavirus crisis has caused seismic economic waves to hit war ravaged Syria. The Syrian currency has effectively collapsed, with areas outside of the Regime’s control in the north starting to use the Turkish Lira. It’s worth remembering that when Bashar al-Assad inherited the presidency from his father two decades ago, Syria was a middle-income country. Now over 80% of its people are poor.
The US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey claimed that the crumbling Syrian currency was partly due to US actions; “the Syrian pound’s collapse proves that Russia and Iran are no longer able to float the Assad regime while the regime itself is no longer able to manage an effective economic policy, or launder money in Lebanese banks”.
A fragile country already trying to cope with a poverty crisis now faces a clampdown to those third parties that were providing such essential support in propping up the Regime. Of course the nominal purpose of the sanctions is not to change the Regime itself but rather affect its behaviour, outlining specifically aims to erode the Regime’s capacity to wage war, and to ‘create meaningful economic incentives to induce the Assad regime to free political detainees, end violence against civilians, and demonstrate “irreversible progress” toward the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254’.
Understandably many are nervous as to what kind of impact these new restrictions will have on the average Syrian citizen. People remember the devastating impact of the sanctions that isolated Iraq throughout the 1990s leading to estimates of hundreds of thousands of child deaths. The danger is that Caesar will be further punishment rather and a solution to Syria’s woes.
Defenders of the sanctions argue that lessons have been learnt from the past and that this new approach is targeted and contains provisos to “enhance the protection of civilians.” One way of doing this is to explicitly avoid penalizing humanitarian assistance, including medical and food supplies intended for civilian use. However, the Regime itself has proved itself willing to politicise this supposedly neutral assistance and few can doubt the lengths they are willing to go to in order to preserve their rule.
If the sanctions can avoid harming normal Syrians whilst deterring third party allies from investing the Regime’s war machine then it seems hard to argue with them, but it is a big “if” that could rapidly spiral into further hardships for Syrians. Interestingly the Caesar sanctions highlight how far we’ve come from that narrative of the Regime being secure and now looking to reap the benefits of reconstruction. Instead their vulnerability and reliance on external support, that could now be choked, has been exposed something that may have been on the minds of the protestors that took to the streets in the city of Suweida. The coming months will reveal the true cost of the sanctions to the Syria elite, its people and its allies all against the backdrop of an impending Coronavirus outbreak.
by : jamse danselow
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BENEFIT Sponsors BuildHer...
- April 23, 2025
BENEFIT, the Kingdom’s innovator and leading company in Fintech and electronic financial transactions service, has sponsored the BuildHer CityHack 2025 Hackathon, a two-day event spearheaded by the College of Engineering and Technology at the Royal University for Women (RUW).
Aimed at secondary school students, the event brought together a distinguished group of academic professionals and technology experts to mentor and inspire young participants.
More than 100 high school students from across the Kingdom of Bahrain took part in the hackathon, which featured an intensive programme of training workshops and hands-on sessions. These activities were tailored to enhance participants’ critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and team-building capabilities, while also encouraging the development of practical and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges using modern technological tools.
BENEFIT’s Chief Executive Mr. Abdulwahed AlJanahi, commented: “Our support for this educational hackathon reflects our long-term strategic vision to nurture the talents of emerging national youth and empower the next generation of accomplished female leaders in technology. By fostering creativity and innovation, we aim to contribute meaningfully to Bahrain’s comprehensive development goals and align with the aspirations outlined in the Kingdom’s Vision 2030—an ambition in which BENEFIT plays a central role.”
Professor Riyadh Yousif Hamzah, President of the Royal University for Women, commented: “This initiative reflects our commitment to advancing women in STEM fields. We're cultivating a generation of creative, solution-driven female leaders who will drive national development. Our partnership with BENEFIT exemplifies the powerful synergy between academia and private sector in supporting educational innovation.”
Hanan Abdulla Hasan, Senior Manager, PR & Communication at BENEFIT, said: “We are honoured to collaborate with RUW in supporting this remarkable technology-focused event. It highlights our commitment to social responsibility, and our ongoing efforts to enhance the digital and innovation capabilities of young Bahraini women and foster their ability to harness technological tools in the service of a smarter, more sustainable future.”
For his part, Dr. Humam ElAgha, Acting Dean of the College of Engineering and Technology at the University, said: “BuildHer CityHack 2025 embodies our hands-on approach to education. By tackling real-world problems through creative thinking and sustainable solutions, we're preparing women to thrive in the knowledge economy – a cornerstone of the University's vision.”
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