Sanctions eased – earthquake: now even US aid for dictator Assad

The aid should include food, shelter, medicine and family care, US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter on Thursday (local time). “Our hearts are with the people of Turkey and Syria,” he added.

But to nip any possible speculation in the bud, it was made clear that it was a temporary measure. This easing will not undo the Assad regime’s longstanding structural challenges and ruthless tactics, Deputy Finance Minister Wally Adeyemo said in a statement Thursday. But it can ensure sanctions don’t get in the way of the lifesaving help that is needed now.

Assad visited wounded in Aleppo
Civil war broke out in Syria in 2011 after anti-government protests. President Assad is brutally cracking down on his own people in a war that has claimed more than 350,000 lives so far. He is accused of crimes against humanity, including the use of chemical weapons. The government in Damascus now controls about two-thirds of the fragmented country. It also governs Aleppo, which has been heavily contested for a long time and is now badly hit by the earthquake. The Syrian president visited the university hospital there on Friday. The presidential office shared footage of Assad and his wife visiting people injured in the quake.

Assad is largely isolated internationally and also within the Arab world. For example, Syria’s membership of the Arab League was suspended due to the civil war. It has also been repeatedly documented how the Assad government uses aid supplies as a tool of power, supplying areas considered loyal and ignoring residential areas once controlled by the rebels. Food baskets are distributed to military units and the central bank also earns a lot from distorted exchange rates when aid organizations exchange US dollars for Syrian pounds to work in Syria, the CSIS think tank writes. Despite these dangers, the United States is now unwilling to refuse humanitarian aid.

Since the earthquake, various aid organizations and the churches have called for the lifting of the Syrian sanctions. The earthquake multiplied the suffering of the Syrian population. People are already suffering from the burden of war, the pandemic, inflation and a lack of natural resources, medicines and basic necessities, according to a statement by the three patriarchs of different churches living in Damascus. Given the dramatic devastation in the country, Church representatives are calling on the United Nations, as well as directly on the countries of the world, to end sanctions. The patriarchs describe the measures as “unjust” while calling for swift humanitarian initiatives to help the Syrian population overwhelmed by the disasters.

Syrian government: Sanctions hinder aid
The government of Syria has criticized the US and European Union sanctions. Damascus claims they made humanitarian aid difficult after the earthquakes. The foreign ministry in Berlin disagreed. Food, medicine and equipment for the recovery of victims are exempt from the sanctions. The sanctions targeted the Syrian leaders and their supporters specifically. Syria also receives €3.5 million in emergency aid from the EU.

PKK suspends “operations” in Turkey
The extraordinary emergency in Turkey’s earthquake zone has also prompted the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to temporarily suspend all “operations” in the country. “Stop operations in cities in Turkey. We have decided not to carry out operations as long as the Turkish state does not attack us,” Firat news agency, which is close to the PKK, quoted PKK leader Cemil Bayik as saying Friday night.