Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States, under increasing pressure to stop
the killing in Syria, has imposed sanctions on the media owned by the regime
of President Bashar Assad.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on Syria’s state-owned
electronic media. In a statement on March 5, Treasury said Syrian radio and
television were deemed as supporters of the Assad war against the
opposition.

“The General Organization of Radio and TV has served as an arm of the Syrian regime as it mounts increasingly barbaric attacks on its own population and seeks both to mask and legitimize its violence,” Treasury said.

The General Organization of Radio and TV was described as a state-run agency subordinate to the Syrian Information Ministry. The agency oversees operations of Syria’s state-owned television channels, two terrestrial and one satellite, as well as the government radio stations.

This marked the first set of U.S. sanctions on the Assad regime in 2012. Officials said any U.S.-based assets of the Syrian agency would be frozen, and Americans would be banned from dealing with the radio and television stations.

Analysts have asserted that the lion’s share of U.S. sanctions have
failed to harm the Assad regime. They said Americans have invested little in
Syria, and that Assad and his cohorts were not believed to be holding assets
in the United States.

Over the last month, several senior members of Congress have called for
U.S. military and other help to the Sunni rebels. So far, the administration
of President Barack Obama has ruled out military intervention.

“The ultimate goal of air strikes should be to establish and defend safe
havens in Syria, especially in the north, in which opposition forces can
organize and plan their political and military activities against Assad,”
Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said on March 5.

“These safe havens could serve as platforms for the delivery of humanitarian and military assistance — including weapons and ammunition, body armor and other personal protective equipment, tactical
intelligence, secure communications equipment, food and water and medical
supplies.”

  Barack Obama, Bashar Assad, General Organization of Radio and TV, Sen. John McCain, Senate Armed Services Committee, Sunni revolt, Syrian Information Ministry, U.S. sanctions Syria’s state-owned media; McCain calls for air strikes