Obama announces sanctions on Syria, Iran to prevent tech assaults on activists

Washington - US President Barack Obama has announced new sanctions against Syria and Iran by taking aim at those who provide their authoritarian governments with technology to perpetrate human rights abuses.

In a speech at the US Holocaust Museum, Obama announced the new sanctions against 'digital guns for hire'.

"The executive order creates sanctions against the government of Syria and Iran and those who abet them, for using technologies to monitor, target and track its citizens for violence," the BBC quoted Obama, as saying.

"These technologies should be in place to empower citizens, not to repress them," he added.

According to the report, the specific targets of the sanctions announced by the US Treasury, includes Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps, Syria's General Security Directorate and its chief Ali Mamluk, as well as the state-controlled mobile phone company, Syriatel.

Iran is believed to have provided the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with programs that jam mobile phones.

Social networking sites that the Syrian opposition would use to organise demonstrations have been blocked or monitored using similar technologies.