Earthquake in Syria, President Assad visited Latakia

DAMASCUS - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma have met with relief teams and civilians in the northwestern parts of the country hit by Monday's devastating earthquake, Syrian media reported. The two traveled to Tishreen University Hospital in Latakia city to visit people injured by the earthquake and also spoke to earthquake-affected families at the Bassel al-Assad city education center. Assad and his wife also visited Russian and Syrian rescue teams operating in the town of Jableh, 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) south of Latakia.

The Syrian head of state Bashar al-Assad has sharply criticized the double standards of the western governments and the politicization of their humanitarian aid delivery for the earthquake victims in his country. Assad, who continued his visit to the areas in the north of the country hit by the devastating recent earthquake, said on Saturday when he visited the Latakia hospital where earthquake victims are treated: Western double standards are not new and have been around for a long time six centuries. The special adviser to the Syrian Presidency also stressed that the US and the West do not care about human lives and that all of their claims about the humanitarian issue in Syria are lies.

According to SANA news agency, "Bathina Shaaban" said on Saturday that if they want to prove the truth of their claim, they should immediately and unconditionally lift the arbitrary economic punitive measures and not make misleading decisions aimed at making a false one after the humanitarian disaster in the country give an impression of humanity. Shaaban explained: The situation in Syria is difficult due to the earthquake that shook the country and for this reason the Council of Ministers yesterday decided to declare the affected areas in Aleppo, Latakia, Hama and Idlib provinces as disaster zones.

She added: What aggravates the situation is the arbitrary economic punitive measures taken by the United States and Europe, which prevent Syrian tools and methods from being developed to help those under the rubble; the Americans claim they allowed the help! Shaaban concluded by saying that the world has changed and Syria is on the right side of history alongside Russia, China and countries that uphold their sovereignty and independent decision-making. Syria sees the multipolar world as the need of today's humanity to end the hegemony of the West.