Monday\u2019s devastating earthquakes killed hundreds of Syrians and shattered critical infrastructure already battered by the West\u2019s decade-long dirty war against the Middle Eastern nation. But Washington has refused to budge on its sanctions, which aptly bear the name of an ancient Roman emperor known for his cruelty.
\nThe United States will not be lifting its Caesar Act sanctions or other restrictions against Syria following Monday\u2019s quakes, State Department spokesman Ned Price has indicated.
\n\u201cFirst, I would like to start today by echoing the president and secretary in expressing our deepest condolences to the people of Turkey and Syria following the devastating earthquakes in Kahramanmaras, in southeastern Turkey,\u201d Price said in a briefing Monday. \u201cWe stand in solidarity with our allies, our partners, and the people of Turkey and Syria affected by those terrible events.\u201d
\nPrice clarified that this \u201csolidarity\u201d doesn\u2019t extend to the Syrian government. Asked why Washington wasn\u2019t ready to coordinate aid with Damascus directly, the spokesman suggested that it \u201cwould be quite ironic, if not counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now.\u201d
\nInstead, according to Price, the US will be working with \u201cNGO partners on the ground,\u201d who, \u201cunlike the Syrian regime, are there to help the people rather than brutalize them.\u201d The spokesman did not elaborate on just who these \u201cpartners on the ground\u201d were, except to say that they will \u201cneed to have access to be able to go back and forth across the border\u201d to provide help.
\nWhat is the Caesar Act?
\nSyria is being suffocated by Western sanctions, including the “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act,” better known simply as the Caesar Act, a major piece of US legislation passed in late 2019 which targets the Syrian government and businesses with severe sanctions, and threatens punitive measures against any foreign individuals, businesses or countries cooperating with Damascus. While touted as being intended to \u201cpunish\u201d the Syrian government and President Bashar Assad for \u201cwar crimes\u201d against the Syrian people, the law has in practice resulted in untold suffering among Syria\u2019s civilian population by blocking imports of essential goods like food, energy, and basic medical supplies and equipment.
\nThe Caesar Act is one of dozens of packages of US sanctions against Syria, with restrictions against the country going back as far as 1979. Syria is one of the most heavily sanctioned nations in the world, with over 2,600 sanctions in place against the country by the US and its European allies at this time.
\nThe sanctions have served to dramatically worsen the socioeconomic crisis caused by the West\u2019s long-running dirty war in the country, have affected the country\u2019s neighbors and have sparked criticism even from anti-Assad media and governments over their cruel and indiscriminate nature.
\nLate last year, after a 12-day fact-finding trip to Syria, UN Special Rapporteur Alena Douhan urged Washington and its allies to immediately lift all \u201csuffocating\u201d unilateral sanctions against Syrians, saying she had been \u201cstruck by the pervasiveness of the human rights and humanitarian impact of the unilateral coercive measures\u201d imposed against the country.
\n\u2018Crocodile Tears\u2019
\n\u201cIt has been clear for a long time that the US is more interested in regime change in Syria than in the welfare of the Syrian people,\u201d Ford emphasized. \u201cThe cruel sanctions impact far more on ordinary citizens than on the Syrian government.\u201d
\nNGOs Can\u2019t Match Effectiveness of the State in Aid Distribution
\nDr. Imad Salamey, an associate professor of political science at the Lebanese American University, agrees that ignoring the Syrian government\u2019s existence will limit the effectiveness of any US aid to the quake-stricken country.
\nAccording to Dr. Salamey, the Caesar Act does have exemptions allowing for possible cooperation with Damascus in support of humanitarian relief objectives, but such cooperation \u201cwould require decisions from the White House,\u201d which, judging by Price\u2019s remarks, seem unlikely, because President Joe Biden doesn\u2019t want to be taking a soft line on Assad by Washington hawks.
\nPeter Ford offered a more blunt assessment on NGOs, saying the US would \u201cnaturally\u201d prefer to continue working in Syria \u201cthrough its own puppet NGOs like the White Helmets, whose primary purpose is not to help civilians but to whitewash the image of the jihadi controllers of northern Syria and thereby justify the continuing Western support for the armed opposition against the legitimate Syrian government.\u201d
\n“The humanitarian issue shouldn’t be politicized…because it’s related to the basic needs of human kind,” the Syrian political analyst said. Characterizing sanctions as a continuation of the war against Syria “by other tools,” Dr. Ibrahim stressed that Syrians have come to learn only too well that the “United States is not concerned about democracy or about human rights or about humanitarian issues. They want only one thing: to put their hands in Syria and topple the government of President Assad, to bring another government [to power] which is loyal to the United States and will apply their agenda in the Middle East.” Syrians’ hope, he said, is finding rational Americans “who will understand the truth and realities and the facts of the nations and people who refuse to be slaves to other nations.”
\nFord characterized the State Department\u2019s stance on direct aid as \u201cthe height of callousness,\u201d stressing that \u201cthe most practical and effective course for delivering assistance\u201d would be state-to-state support. \u201cThe US, with its \u2018triple no\u2019s\u2019 of no sanctions lifting, no contact with the legitimate authorities and no coordination with them is clearly behaving hypocritically and selfishly,\u201d Ford concluded.
\nUS Intransigence Sparks Bewilderment, Condemnation
\nUS and European silence on the provision of direct support to Syria has sparked criticism from countries, humanitarian agencies, and human rights advocacies around the world.
\nThe Syrian branch of the International Committee of the Red Cross has called on the West to urgently lift restrictions. \u201cWe call for the lifting of the blockade and economic sanctions imposed on Syria in order to deal with the impact of the devastating earthquake,\u201d Syrian Red Crescent chief Khaled Hboubati said in a press conference Tuesday. \u201cWe need heavy equipment, ambulances and fire brigades to speed up search and rescue operations. To do this, it\u2019s necessary to remove sanctions against Syria as soon as possible,\u201d the official urged. The Syrian Red Crescent is ready to take aid from any country, except Israel.
\nThe Middle East Council of Churches, a Beirut-headquartered group representing the Middle East\u2019s Christian communities, has also called on the West to lift crushing restrictions and \u201callow access\u201d for aid, \u201cso that sanctions may not turn into a crime against humanity.\u201d
\nThe American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a US-based grassroots civil rights advocacy, is also calling for sanctions to be lifted, stressing that \u201ctime is of the essence\u201d in the provision of \u201cimmediate relief to those in need.\u201d
\nIran \u2013 which has already dispatched a planeload of aid including food, medical, and sanitary supplies to Damascus, is calling on the international community to put pressure on Washington to change its course.
\n\u201cThe important point is that different countries must exert pressure on the US government to lift the cruel siege of Syria so that international humanitarian aid can be delivered to the quake-stricken people of Syria without any obstacles in the shortest possible time,\u201d Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said.
\nPotential Watershed Moment
\nSurprisingly, major Middle Eastern countries have demonstrably refused to toe the US line on post-quake assistance to Syria, with Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates joining traditional Syrian allies Iran and Russia in providing aid, or expressing readiness to do so. On Tuesday, Egyptian President Abdel el-Sisi spoke to President Assad by phone, offering condolences and pledging Cairo\u2019s \u201cfull support\u201d for relief efforts. The call was the first of its kind since el-Sisi came to power in 2014.
\nCommenting on these developments, Syrian political scientist Hassan Yousef told Sputnik Arabic that the “humanitarian aid delivered by all these countries could become an important starting point for improving relations between all Arab countries in the region,” and for mending ties between Damascus and nations which had once joined forces with Washington in trying to overthrow the Assad government.
\nLebanese military expert and retired general Omar Al-Mughrabi echoed Yousef’s sentiments, saying that while the “politicization” of relief efforts demonstrated the “barbaric” “true face of the collective West” in relation to Syria, the apparent unity shown by the leaders of Arab countries by contrast gives rise to questions whether the disaster could become a factor for regional reconciliation, and perhaps even accelerate Damascus’s return to the Arab League.
\nVeteran Syrian political commentator Alla Al-Asfari fears the answer is ‘no’, because the majority of the countries of the Persian Gulf lack the political will to make independent decisions due to US pressure and fear of US wrath, even if they would like to see a rapprochement in ties with Syria.
\nNonetheless, Al-Asfari stressed the need for a “united Arab position and united actions demanding the lifting of these unfair sanctions so that Syria can continue rescue operations, since hundreds of citizens are still trapped under the rubble while civil defenses are forced to rescue them using simple and primitive tools.”
\nAsked to comment on Riyadh’s surprise display of solidarity with Damascus in the wake of the quakes, Saudi political scientist and strategic affairs researcher Fawaz Kaseb Al-Enezi told Sputnik Arabic that the kingdom “always separates its humanitarian positions from political ones,” with food, medical and financial aid to Syria based on concerns “about Arab national security, which can be threatened by such natural disasters.”
\nA 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Turkey on Monday morning, with devastation spreading out from the Turkish epicenter into neighboring Syria. A second quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale hit several hours later. On Tuesday, a third, 5.5 magnitude quake hit central Turkey. Over 3,500 people in Turkey were killed in the disaster, with 20,000+ injured. Syrian authorities have reported over 800 fatalities and 1,400+ injuries in government-controlled areas of the country as of Tuesday afternoon, with over 700 more people feared dead in Idlib \u2013 the Syrian province controlled by US and Turkish-backed jihadists.<\/p>\n
Sputniknews<\/p>\n
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