US sanctions on Syria hinder aid supply, leave thousands under rubble

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
9 Feb 2023 08:20
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Syria bears the scars of 12 years of brutal war, in addition to US draconian sanctions -- the effects of which are likely to nullify aid efforts most notably in the areas worst struck by the quake.

Syrian soldiers aid rescuers amid the rubble of a collapsed building in the northern city of Aleppo on February 9, 2023. (AFP)

As heartbreaking images continue to emerge from Syria, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said US draconian sanctions against the war-torn country, which is suffering from the aftermath of devastating earthquakes, raise prices and hamper humanitarian operations.

During an interview for Sptunik, IFRC Under-Secretary-General for Operations Coordination Xavier Castellanos said, "Sanctions do have these unintended consequences. And if I summarize, [it] increases the prices on everything that we do, takes more time to deliver the humanitarian services, it sometimes requires private supplies that could again increase the cost and there is this level of fear sometimes to facilitate the existing procedures [with regard to] sanctions."

Dropping a heart-wrenching warning, Castellanos warns that Syria may have more people under rubble than Turkey as a result of the severe earthquakes and that a large number of those are still missing.

"In Syria, my view is that probably we will end up having significantly more people under rubble than in Turkey, but numbers will tell us, there will be a moment in time when we will talk about missing people because there will not be a guarantee what happened with them," Castellanos said.

"We see a major challenge in those areas where you don't have rescue search and rescue teams with equipment that is needed and with necessary machinery that is required," he said.

IFRC Under-Secretary-General for Operations Coordination believed that Turkey and its neighboring Syria will require a long time to recover from the tremendous wreckage inflicted by the catastrophic earthquakes, and the struggle will be even higher for Syria given the country's already dismal situation.

It is worth noting that Syria bears the scars of 12 years of brutal war in addition to US draconian sanctions-- the effects of which are likely to nullify aid efforts most notably in the areas worst struck by the quake.

It will be "even more complicated" for Syria, while Turkey is likely to tackle the crisis "a little bit faster," he stressed.

He further estimated that IFRC's total initial response to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria is at 200 million Swiss francs ($217 million), adding that the organization will need several months to calculate the final amount of relief aid necessary to respond to the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

West provides earthquake relief only to militant-held areas

Western countries are not providing necessary aid to the Syrian government, which is dealing with the fallout of the devastating earthquake, and only send them to areas in Syria that are controlled by militant terrorist groups, the Syrian Presidency’s Special Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban said.

"Unfortunately, the West only cares about areas where the terrorists are - where the White Helmets are - but they do not care about the areas in which most Syrian people live... Most of the money, all of the equipment has been dispatched to Turkey from Europe and from the US. Nothing to Syria from Europe, at all," Shaaban told Sky News.

This is happening as thousands, including little children, are still calling for help from under the rubble in Syria. However, the rolling crises through which most Syrians are living didn't gain international support mainly due to the US draconian sanctions.