Western sanctions will make sure more Syrians die after the earthquakes — RT World News

After the devastating earthquake that shook Türkiye, Syria and neighboring countries on February 6, leaving more than 20,000 people dead, Damascus is struggling to cope with this unprecedented humanitarian disaster as the country still suffers from brutal Western sanctions that have brought the country to its knees.

The West’s war on Syria that began in early 2011 failed to topple the country’s elected president, but in the following years sanctions became more and more brutal – all in the name of ‘help the Syrian people’ – has succeeded in making life miserable and nearly impossible, with most unable to afford to feed their families, less heating their homes. Surname.

Now, in a time of crisis, the people of Syria cannot even receive donations or emergency assistance from abroad. A supporter set up a GoFundMe campaign, but it was taken down due to sanctions. Type the word “Ukraine” Enter the search field on PayPal or GoFundMe and you will see countless calls to send money to Ukraine. But for Syrians, Western platforms like this are off-limits and have been around for years.

Add to the devastation left by war

On February 6, southern Türkiye and northern Syria hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake, followed by dozens of aftershocks and then another. While neighboring Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq and others were affected, the hardest hit were in Türkiye and Syria.

As of February 9, the official death toll in Syria is 1.347with more than 2,300 people injured. Nearly 300,000 Syrians were displaced due to the earthquake. The early scenes in Türkiye and Syria were heartbreaking and tragic, with buildings collapsing in front of everyone, and rubble with dead and disabled people trapped below.

In Syria, earthquakes have added to the heavy damage caused by the war. Aleppo, the country’s second largest city, tends to be tragic building collapse because of the terrorist occupation that lasted until 2016. Militants regularly dig tunnels under buildings, in many cases to plant explosives and destroy them, as they do with the Chamber of Industry in April 2014. With the people of Syria already struggling to survive the earthquake, now Aleppo and the coastal regions of Syria affected by the earthquake are even facing it. with more dead, wounded and displaced.

Sanctions have killed Syrians

Even without earthquakes, Syrians fight to get medicines, hospitals struggling to get or maintain vital machinery and equipment, and entire populations suffocating as the country’s economy deteriorates, all by design.

Western leaders are adamant that the only people to blame for the suffering of the Syrian people before the earthquake are President Bashar Assad and his government (or “regime,” when Washington calls any unwanted foreign government that has not yet been overthrown), “dictatorial” caused the people to revolt and start a civil war (actually a US-led proxy war against Syria to overthrow the said government). Sanctions, ostensibly aimed at “regime,” according to this logic, aim helpAnd protect general population. In fact, they are strangling Syrian civilians.

This is the life of many Syrians today, according to British journalist Vanessa Beeley: “The US and their proxies of Kurdish separatists are seizing Syria’s resources in the northeast, including their oil, which means that much of Syria is dependent on Iranian oil for sustenance. maintain the operation of any type of electricity. Right now, we basically have about two or three hours of electricity a day. There is no heating in most homes across Syria.”

As Beeley notes, Syrians displaced by the earthquake – unless they receive emergency aid – face freezing cold and wet conditions, “There are no alternative shelters, no electricity, no heating.“And thanks sanctions, humanitarian aid is desperately needed and fundraising is difficult. International cargo planes cannot land in Syria, crowdfunding services and even credit cards are unavailable. The well-signed Western nations – the main cause of suffering in Syria since 2011 – have not only persisted in maintaining sanctions; most of them have not offered any meaningful help since the earthquake, just empty word.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China blame sanctions to amplify the dire situation, while pointing out that the illegal US presence in Syria and the theft of Syria’s resources are also exacerbating the economic situation.

“Frequent [US] Military attacks and harsh economic sanctions have caused massive civilian casualties and taken away the means of subsistence of the Syrian people. As we speak, the US military continues to occupy the main oil-producing areas of Syria. They have robbed more than 80% of Syria’s oil production, smuggled and burned Syria’s grain stockpile. All of this has made the humanitarian crisis in Syria worse.”

A friend in need of help is a neighbor on the punishment list

All of the above has led Syrians to largely rely on the country’s friends for help. Incidentally, many of these countries and groups are among the most vilified by the West.

After the earthquake, the Russian Ministry of Defense dispatch “more than 300 personnel, 60 military and special vehicles” for relief and aid efforts in Syria. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has sent more than 100 rescue workers to Türkiye and Syria, including a mobile airborne hospital with 40 medical staff..

Iran sent a plane carrying 45 tons of medical, food and sanitary aid to Syria, and pledged to send more.

Even Libya battered, largely destroyed by another Western project of regime change, sent an aircraft carrying 40 tons of medical and humanitarian aid, as well as ambulances, to Aleppo International Airport.

Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance movement, sent humanitarian aid convoy to Syria. Lebanese army speak they will send members of the Engineer Regiment to Syria to contribute to search and rescue operations.

Of course, not everyone who offers to help Syria is on the Western sanctions list. Algeria sent 115 tons of food aid and medical supplies, tents and blankets, as 86 officers in charge of protecting the streets. United Arab Emirates will appears to have sent $50 million to Syria for relief efforts, and Indian, Emirati and Jordanian planes carry humanitarian and medical aid to Syrian victims get there in the capital on Wednesday. Even New Zealand commit contribute NZ$500,000 “for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) to meet humanitarian needs.”

Meanwhile, the Western corporate media is stuck in the narrative of blaming the Assad government, with a New York Times article on the matter. clear initially said that Western sanctions had hampered relief efforts for Syria – before quickly changing his stance to say that the government “strictly controls what it allows aid to enter into opposition-held areas.This is consistent with the old hoax that the Syrian government denies aid to civilians in areas occupied by terrorists, which most Western media refer to as “rebels” And “opposing warriors.” This is something that I and other journalists in the field have repeatedly exposed, when visiting liberated areas and hearing over and over that locals are starving because terrorists have hoarded supplies. humanitarian aid, refuse to give it to civilians or sell it at too high a price.

Western aid is not for everyone

On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a “dark appearance”secondary disaster“in Syria, Point at ARRIVE “major disruption” to basic life supplies, but does not highlight the role of Western sanctions or the presence of terrorism in northwestern Syria as the underlying cause. Reports of UN aid to northern Syria via Türkiye also downplay the presence of Al-Qaeda terrorists in the areas mentioned, as does Türkiye’s years-long support for forces fighting the Syrian government. Such reports also fail to address the need for emergency relief in government-controlled areas of Syria and the government’s efforts to bring about that relief.

About 12 years after the Western proxy war in Syria, the continued denial of the most basic of emergency humanitarian aid to Syrians outside.”rebel control” regions, showing how little the Western claim to care about the Syrians really matters. The lack of interest by the United Nations, WHO, and aid agencies in Aleppo, among other government-controlled areas, is not surprising, given these agencies for many years. systematically downplayed terrorism against Syrian civilians.

As the humanitarian disaster continues, it is also important to remember that, for decades, Syria has received refugees from many countries. However, despite the current emergency and the urgent need to lift Western sanctions, it is unlikely that “mercy” The West will change its crippling anti-Syrian policies to allow the Syrian people to survive.