Researcher Muhsen AlMustafa, a specialist in military relations at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies, told Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper that the new European sanctions fall within the framework of assigning responsibility for violations committed on the Syrian coast, and considered them a message directed to the new Syrian government to prevent the recurrence of such violations on the coast or in any other area in the future.

Nevertheless, AlMustafa downplayed the importance of the sanctions, considering them “a mere formality,” especially since these formations will disappear and be merged within the Ministry of Defense as part of the ongoing process of restructuring the Syrian army.

AlMustafa pointed out that placing Brigadier Generals Mohammed al-Jassem and Saif Boulad on the European sanctions lists would weaken their influence within the restructured army, and would later facilitate for the Ministry of Defense to retire them and remove them from the military roster and the leadership of the divisions they currently command.