We demand that equal aid be provided to Syria and Turkey (Based on need), and that aid to Syria be distributed by the legitimate government of Syria in Damascus and by the Syrian Red Crescent Society which was formed by the Syrian state some 70 years ago.
Statement from the Syria Support Movement
In the early morning hours of February 6, 2023, a 7.8 Earthquake struck in the vicinity of the Syrian Border with Turkey. At the end of the day, February 5, there were at least 1,700 dead, more than 20,000 injured, thousands more missing and hundreds of thousands displaced in Syria. Victims and rescue crews are struggling with continuing aftershocks and sub zero temperatures.
Syria Support Movement wholeheartedly stands with the victims of this massive earthquake, and through our charitable engagement, we will participate in delivering aid. At the same time, we condemn the hypocritical stance of the U.S. government and their European allies. Due to devastating U.S. Sanctions enacted under the Caesar Civilian Protection Act in December, 2019, there are few avenues of relief for majority of Syrians affected, who are living in the government held areas. The United States has taken every opportunity to impede rebuilding Syria following their devastating decade long proxy war against the people of Syria, during which they spent billions of dollars supporting murderous terrorist groups who raped and pillaged throughout the land.
During the war, much of the country’s infrastructure was damaged or destroyed, many people were displaced and since then the U.S. Unilateral Sanctions combined with the U.S. occupation have made it difficult to rebuild. This earthquake has brought a new round of death and devastation to northern Syria and the people who live there.
Following the devastating earthquake that occurred on February 6, Antiwar.com asked U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price if the government is considering lifting sanctions in light of the humanitarian disaster caused by the earthquake. He replied that the U.S. engages with the government in Turkey, but only with NGOs in Syria. The problem is that U.S. NGOs in Syria do not operate in government-controlled areas where the majority of the population reside, but only in Idlib, a small terrorist-controlled province in the north of Syria. No aid will go through U.S. approved NGOs to Aleppo, a huge city where buildings are once again crashing on the people who live and work in them, or Hama or Latakia, a large province to the west of Idlib. There cannot be an equitable disbursement of aid under these discriminatory circumstances.
With stone-faced hypocrisy, Price went on to say that
[it] would be quite ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now.
Throughout those dozen years, the United States has continuously waged war on the Syrian people, while the Syrian government and the Syrian Arab Army fought valiantly to protect them. Unlike many other governments in countries similarly attacked by the U.S., the Syrian government stayed the course. Whether the U.S. likes it or not, that is why the Syrian people continue to support their government in a large majority.
Price went on to claim that the U.S. has given more aid to Syria over the last decade than any other country. These remarks would be laughable if U.S. policy towards Syria over the last decade were not so devastating for the Syrian people.
Beyond the sanctions, the United States has been occupying approximately a third of the country, in the east where Syria’s oil wells and Syria’s grain fields are located, using Kurdish militias to manage the region. They have been pumping the oil and shipping it into Iraqi Kurdistan for sale, and using at least some of the proceeds to support their proxies in the region. On more than one occasion, the wheat fields have been burned, though some of it is sold back to the Syrian government at high cost.
After Alena Douhan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Negative Effects of Unilateral Coercive Measures, spent two weeks in Syria in late 2022, she wrote [1]
“I am struck by the pervasiveness of the human rights and humanitarian impact of the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria and the total economic and financial isolation of a country whose people are struggling to rebuild a life with dignity, following the decade-long war.”
Before this current tragedy struck, Ms. Douhan [2] said that 12 million people in Syria live with food insecurity. She urged “the immediate lifting of all unilateral sanctions that severely harm human rights and prevent any efforts for early recovery, rebuilding and reconstruction.”
To this day, however, the United States continues its rapacious policy
Meanwhile, the the United States has a new round of sanctions in the works through the Captagon Act, which has passed the house and is scheduled to be included in the 2023 Defense Authorization Act, just as the Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act was embedded in the 2021 Defense Authorization Act so as to avoid debate on the details. Like the Caesar Act, the Captagon Act enables the United States to place further Unilateral Coercive Measures, on the Syrian government, Syrian businesses and Syrian financial affairs, thereby undermining the economy of the country and the human right of dignity and free exchange, as well as the fundamental rights of food, medicine and building materials necessary to maintain a reasonable standard of living.
All this in the midst of a horrific natural disaster.
According to a report by SANA
“Syrians, while dealing with the earthquake catastrophe, are digging among rubble by their own hands or using simplest tools as the equipment of removing the rubble are banned because they are punished by the US.”
Syrian banks are disengaged from international channels of trade; Syrian businesses are unable to obtain basic materials necessary for the manufacturing goods, and the maintenance of manufacturing facilities, basic medicines and tools. Meanwhile, the United States is occupying Syria’s primary region for producing grain and oil, forcing the government to buy food and power for survival of the people rather than invest in trade and the development of a self-sustaining economy. Secondary sanctions hold those who violate these sanctions accountable to severe penalties, thereby enforcing the siege internationally, not so much on the Syrian government as on the Syrian people.
Now that the welfare of Syria’s population is further devastated by natural disaster, food, medicine, and building materials are more necessary than ever. These Unilateral Coercive Measures are designed to impede reconstruction, after constraining immediate humanitarian assistance. How is this protecting Syrian Civilians?
According to Syrian Journalist Steven Sahiounie, “Countries who have offered help to Syria [as of Feb 6] are: China, Russia, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Iraq, Algeria, France, Spain, Germany, Sweden and Bahrain.” At the moment, it is nearly impossible to get aid into Syria from western countries.
End the Sanctions Now ** End the Siege ** Immediate Aid for the Syria People
We demand that equal aid be provided to Syria and Turkey (Based on need), and that aid to Syria be distributed by the legitimate government of Syria in Damascus and by the Syrian Red Crescent Society which was formed by the Syrian state some 70 years ago.
For information on the Syria Solidarity Movement and its mission:
https://syriasupportmovement.org/about/origins-of-the-syria-solidarity-movement/
https://syriasupportmovement.org/about/steering-committee/
https://syriasupportmovement.org/about/mission-statement/
[1] ohchr(dot)org/en/node/104160
[2] apnews(dot)com/article/middle-east-business-syria-civil-wars-bashar-assad-00832f11322da5be4947df261fd4dd8e
Free Ukraine Now 