Recently, Syria has been accused, and found guilty of using chemical weapons on its own citizens. The first instance occurred earlier this year in early March. This crime took place right outside of Aleppo, Syria in a small town called Khan al-Assal. Since this first attack there has been five more following. The man in charge of these attacks is Bashar al-Assad, the President of Syria. Once these attacks became know worldwide the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met and discussed what actions should take place to ensure safety as well as discipline between Bashar and his regime. Since the attacks the UNSC has taken steps to make sure all members of the UNSC would not aid Syria. Members of the UN Security Council have attempted to pass a resolution condemning the violence against civilians in Syria; the resolution called for an end to the repression and would have laid the foundation for imposing sanctions against the Syrian regime. However, in a rare double-veto, Russia and China blocked the resolution. A few months later, Russia and China blocked another resolution by the Arab League calling for an end to v iolence and laying out a solution for the crisis. However, just because the UNSC and Arab League were unsuccessful in implementing sanctions against Syria, individual states are able to apply whatever sanctions they wished. The United States is one actor that has applied sanctions. There are currently three types of sanctions that the U.S. government has imposed against Syria. These sanctions had previously been put into action but have now been extended due to Bashar’s use of chemical weapons. The most comprehensive sanction, called the Syria Accountability Act (SAA) of 2004, prohibits the export of most goods containing more than 10% U.S.-manufactured component parts to Syria. Another sanction, resulting from the USA Patriot Act, was levied specifically against the Commercial Bank of Syria in 2006. Because the bank was known to aid in the distribution of weapons of mass destruction. The third type of sanction contains many Executive Orders f rom the President that specifically deny certain Syrian citizens and entities access to the U.S. financial system due to their participation
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