US sanctions Syria rebel group

The US Treasury said yesterday that it had imposed sanctions on four leaders of the Syrian Jabhat Fateh Al-Sham (JFS) rebel group under regulations targeting people suspected by the United States of engaging in terrorist activity or supporting terrorist groups.

The Treasury said in a statement it was imposing sanctions on four JFS leaders:

Abdallah Muhammad bin Sulayman Al-Muhaysini, a member of JFS’s inner leadership circle who was involved in recruiting fighters for the group in northern Syria;
Jamal Husayn Zayniyah, a JFS leader who was responsible for planning operations in Al-Qalamoun, Syria and Lebanon;
Abdul Jashari, a military adviser for JFS in Syria who has helped raise funds for the families of fighters of the group;
Ashraf Ahmad Fari Al-Allak, a JFS military commander in Dara Province, Syria.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control said the sanctions were aimed at disrupting the military, recruitment and financial activities of JFS, formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front. The regulations bar US citizens from engaging in business with people sanctioned by the office.

The Treasury’s actions were made in coordination with the US State Department, which yesterday named JFS as an alias of Al-Nusra Front rather than re-designating the organisation. The United States considers JFS to be Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

JFS said in July that it had broken ties with Al-Qaeda and changed its name in what some have described as an effort to deny the United States and Russia a pretext to attack it or other opposition groups working with them.

However, Washington has not recognised the change as legitimate, and still considers JFS to be very much a part of Al-Qaeda’s global network.

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