US sanctions against Syria ‘scraping the bottom of the barrel’

American efforts to add sanctions against Syria are “counterproductive” and will make achieving a ceasefire in the country impossible, a former US Senate policy adviser and diplomat says.

“Further US sanctions on Syria is rather a silly idea; we’re really talking about scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said James Jatras, who is also a specialist in international relations and legislative politics in Washington.

“We have shown pretty much every sanction we have against Syria and to try to think of something else is counterproductive,” Jatras told Press TV on Thursday.

US President Barack Obama is considering more sanctions against Syria that could target lower-level military officers, following the failure of US and Russian efforts to revive a failed ceasefire in the country.

American officials and diplomats said the new strategy is still being discussed, but initial efforts may focus on passing United Nations sanctions against those responsible for the chemical weapons attack three years ago.

A UN-backed panel is expected in the next few weeks to present new findings about the deadly chemical attacks in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta in 2013.

Syrian opposition groups and their western allies claim the nerve gas attacks were launched by the Syrian government. Damascus rejects the allegation, saying the attack was carried out by militants operating inside the country to draw in foreign intervention. Subsequent investigations by the UN and Russia backed Syria’s assertions.

Most of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's top government and military officials are already the subjects of US travel bans and assets freezes.

However, Washington’s efforts to add sanctions against Damascus could force Moscow to wield its veto in the UN Security Council.

“Let’s keep in mind that it is the Obama administration that has undermined the ceasefire; it really made it impossible,” Jatras said.

“For President Obama to try to shift the blame for this on to the Russian or Syrians or anybody else is simply absurd.”

Russia has been supporting the Syrian government in its campaign against terrorist groups operating in the country.

Syrian government forces, backed by the Russian air campaign, have managed to gain more ground against foreign-sponsored militants.

On Monday, the United States suspended bilateral channels with Moscow that were established to maintain the cessation of hostilities in the war-torn country amid rising tensions over the embattled city of Aleppo. The US has been working with Russia for months to try to secure a ceasefire in Syria.

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