Thread by @gregkoblentz

The @StateDept has sanctioned 3 Syrian military officers for their role in the August 21, 2013 sarin attack on Ghouta which killed over 1,000 men, women, and children:
Brig Gen Adnan Aboud Hilweh
Maj Gen Ghassan Ahmed Ghannam
Maj Gen Jawdat Saleebi Mawas
state.gov/designation-of…

Maj Gen Ghannan was commander of the
155th Missile Brigade and associated with Maher
al-Assad. He was sanctioned by the EU in 2016.
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…

Brig Gen Adnan Aboud Hilweh was a senior officer in the 155th Missile Brigade. He was sanctioned by the EU in 2016 for "his responsibility for the deployment and use of missile and chemical weapons in civilian areas in 2013." eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…

Maj Gen Jawdat Salbi Mawas in the Syrian Artillery and Missile Directorate was sanctioned by the EU in 2016 for "the use of missiles and chemical weapons by Brigades under his command in highly populated civilian areas in 2013 in Ghouta." eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…

Interestingly, Maj Gen Tahir Hamid Khalil, who was head of the Syrian Artillery and Missiles Directorate in 2013 and was also sanctioned by the EU in 2016 (eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/…) was not sanctioned by US along with his colleagues.

These officers are only part of the vast Syrian chemical weapon complex that used sarin and chlorine indiscriminately against civilians for 8 years. More details on the Syrian chain of command for chemical warfare can be found in this @snhr report: snhr.org/wp-content/pdf…

Proud to support efforts by @OSFJustice to bring these CW perpetrators and war criminals to justice. Criminal investigations into Syrian use of chemical weapons now open in France, Germany, and Sweden.
justiceinitiative.org/newsroom/eight…
#NoImpunity

For more on Syria's use of chemical weapons and their CW chain of command, see this invaluable work by @tobiaschneider @GPPi chemicalweapons.gppi.net

For more on international efforts to hold the Syrian regime accountable, read about the International Partnership Against Impunity for the Use of Chemical Weapons
warontherocks.com/2018/03/noimpu…

And the accountability work of the #UNSC Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) and the @OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT):
tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.108…

This appears to be the first time that Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act has been used to target Syrian CW perpetrators state.gov/wp-content/upl…

No sanctions against these officers yet applied by @USTreasury under EO 13382 (for WMD proliferation) or EO 13572 (for human rights abuses) or EO 13582.