WASHINGTON—The United States on June 17 imposed its toughest sanctions ever targeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to choke off revenue for his government in a bid to force it back to United Nations-led negotiations and broker an end to the country’s nearly decade-long war.
The fresh round of sanctions on Syria, which Washington dubbed as the first taste of a deeper and broader pressure campaign against Assad, come at a time when the Syrian leader is grappling with a deepening economic crisis after a decade of war and amid a rare outbreak of protests in government-held areas.
