US sanctions on Syria's humanitarian efforts must be lifted in the wake of the country's tragic quake

The former president of the United States signed the Caesar statute on December 20, 2019. This law gives the United States government the right to impose sanctions on organisations and individuals that would provide direct or indirect support to the Syrian people. The law proposed by Caesar also bans the supply of "medicine, humanitarian aid, and search and rescue equipment." As a consequence of the devastating earthquake in Syria, El-Mostafa Benlamli, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, has said that the sanctions imposed on Syria impede humanitarian efforts.

As a consequence of the earthquake, the current situation is exceedingly difficult, and the needs are immense, Benlamli remarked, adding that "the humanitarian issue should not be politicised." In an exclusive interview with the official Syrian news agency SANA, Benlamli said, "The goal of the United Nations is to let the rest of the world know how much the Syrian people are suffering because of the sanctions that have been put on their country and how these sanctions have impeded humanitarian efforts by making it hard to get financial aid for earthquake victims."

Benlamli emphasised that Syria is presently witnessing twin crises: the eleven-year-old civil war and the catastrophic earthquake, which have aggravated an already precarious situation. Benlamli asked all international actors not to politicise the humanitarian situation in Syria so that aid could reach the affected citizens. Benlamli also stressed that the Syrian government has done everything it can to help all of the impacted areas.

Since 2011, Syria has been embroiled in a devastating civil war, with Turkey and certain Arab governments aggravating the crisis and complicating attempts to achieve a political solution. In such a scenario, wealthy Arab governments crafted air bridges to aid earthquake victims in Turkey, but they did not take serious action to aid the Syrian nation, despite the fact that the death toll from the earthquake in Syria is rising by the hour and that thousands of people are still trapped under the rubble.

Syria is in dire need of urgent humanitarian assistance as a result of the large number of casualties and devastation caused by the earthquake, but Arab governments have completely abandoned their Arab brethren in Syria in order to comply with cruel US sanctions.

By: F. Najafi