(AP) — In scenes not witnessed for years in government-controlled parts of Syria, dozens of men and women marched through the streets this week, protesting a sharp increase in prices and collapse of the currency, some even calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad and his ruling Baath party.
"He who starves his people is a traitor," protesters chanted at the protest in the southern city of Sweida.
There is an impending fear in Syria that all doors are closing. After nearly a decade of war, the country is crumbling under the weight of years-long Western sanctions, government corruption and infighting, the pandemic and an economic downslide made worse by the financial crisis in Lebanon, Syria's main link with the outside world.
Syria faces near complete isolation as the toughest U.S. sanctions yet come into effect next week. While Assad may have won the military war against his opponents with the help of Russia and Iran, he faces an even bigger challenge of governing while more than 80% of his people live in poverty.
In government-held areas, prices increase several times a day, forcing many shops to close, unable to keep up with the chaos. This week the Syrian currency dropped to a record 3,500 pounds to the dollar on the black market — compared to 700 at the beginning of the year. Some staples such as sugar, rice and medicine are becoming hard to find.
"The Syrian economy has spiraled out of control and the regime cannot control the Syrian pound anymore," said Osama Kadi, a Canada-based Syrian economic adviser.
The pain is likely to grow under the new U.S. sanctions, which Washington says aim to punish Assad and his top lieutenants for crimes committed during the country's conflict.
Effectively, the sanctions prevent anyone around the world from doing business with Syrian officials or state institutions or participate in the war-ravaged country's reconstruction. They also target anyone involved in smuggling to Syria, mostly from Iraq and Lebanon.
The United States already has imposed sanctions on Assad and a number of his top officials. The new authority, known as the U.S. Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, allows foreign companies to be targeted, including in neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq.
"This legislation will close all the doors on the Syrian regime and any person that deals with it," said Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese citizen who is a member of the Caesar Act team, which advises U.S. authorities on implementing the sanctions.
The first wave of sanctions will be imposed on June 17. Three other stages will follow before the end of August, he said.
Caesar is the code name of a Syrian forensic photographer who graphically exposed the brutality of the government crackdown by smuggling out thousands of photos of torture victims.
Experts say the new sanctions will be a heavy blow to a country where eight out of 10 people make less than $100 a month, according to the United Nations. The Syrian government called the sanctions "economic terrorism."
Some of the repercussions already have been profound.
Bread prices increased by nearly 60% in the rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib, even though the territory with a population of over 3 million is not included in the new sanctions. Its population, many of them unemployed and living in refugee camps, have also been hit hard by the collapse of the pound, since it is the main currency used in Idlib.
As a result, protests erupted this week calling for the ouster of the "Salvation Government" administering Idlib, led by al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
The Syrian pound — which had been at 47 to the dollar at the start of the conflict — had held steady at around 500 to the dollar from 2014 until last year.
