Sanctions impact earthquake ravaged Syria
Calls for measures to end to allow emergency aid into Aleppo
Aleppo, Syria. Monday February 6 2022.
Families slept in cars last night, in freezing temperatures, their homes and belongings thrown down into the streets by a massive earthquake early yesterday.
The 7.8 magnitude event rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria at 4am local time. It was followed by a second 7.7 magnitude quake and multiple aftershocks throughout the day.
Aid access to stricken areas of Turkey should be relatively straightforward but more complicated for it’s southern neighbour.
Syria is currently under sanctions imposed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and by the EU. Further sanctions came into force in June 2020 with Caesar Act, targeting Syrian operated industries related to infrastructure, military maintenance and energy production.
The sanctions are designed to crush the Syrian presidency under Basshar Al Assad but in reality make life incredibly difficult for ordinary Syrians, who now rely on Iranian oil for basics such fuel and electricity.
(Damascus, thriving in 2008.)
Syrian oil resources in the country’s north east are estimated to be worth $20 billion annually but remain under US control:
“Currently, the Syrian Democratic Forces, with the support of the US-led coalition, control a quarter of Syria's area, but significantly 90 percent of the oil and more than half of the gas.”
Source (Arabic international newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.)
As bodies were pulled from rubble - some 50 buildings are known to have toppled in Aleppo - civilians and agencies are calling for the lifting of sanctions to allow for delivery of aid.
Among them is the Washington DC based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC.)
“Currently any U.S.-based aid and relief efforts are required to ensure that they follow the Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) guidance, or risk prosecution.
“This adds unnecessary and inhumane delays to organizations and individuals looking to support those in immediate need. Lifting these sanctions to allow for the unfettered flow of humanitarian aid and disaster relief is the moral and humanitarian thing to do,” ADC National Executive Director Abed Ayoub said.
Today (Tues), five planes of aid are due to arrive from Iran, Russia, the UAE and India into airports in Damascus and Latakia, according to the Director of Civil Aviation in Syria.
At the time of writing, it’s not clear if these deliveries will be held in breach of sanctions or what ramifications - if any - could be imposed amid the current emergency.
This morning, those in Aleppo that managed to sleep, are waking up to another day of driving rain and freezing temperatures as the search for survivors continues.
Below is an article published in the Irish Examiner ten years ago, at the outset of the war in Syria in 2012. It is a direct account of Syria as I found it four years prior (2008) on a trip by train that crossed the now earthquake ravaged region through Turkey and Syria and onwards into Lebanon.
(Edited version originally published Irish Examiner March 2012)
THE GOLAN Heights had been a childhood fascination of mine so when a friend mentioned a trip to Syria I died my hair dark to blend in and booked a flight. We crossed west to east across the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul and in a magical fluttering of February snow boarded a train travelling south through eastern Turkey into Aleppo, along the old Orient Express. That train journey gave us an insight into Arabic culture that began with the realisation we had no access to food or water for the 36 hour duration.
Thirst drove us to knock on the carriage overseer's door where we made drinking actions and pronounced 'tea' and 'bread' in garbled Turkish. He was Syrian and did not understand us, but not long after we were summoned to another passenger's cabin. A native of Aleppo, he had unwrapped his package of food and laid it out it its entirety for us to feast on. This included nuts, olives, apples and figs and even a can of beer. At many intervals during that painfully delayed train trip our friend was back, often with the ticket man, to check on us, bring food and to chat.
"In Islam we are all brothers, we treat everyone like a brother. That you are not Muslim it does not change, you are still my brother," he smiled.
He laughed at stereotypical notions of Syria as a dangerous country full of terrorists.
“You think I am a terrorist?”
Upon arrival in Aleppo, he was genuinely offended when we turned down his offer of a stay at his home with his family and a personal guided tour. We said our goodbyes and wandered out in the dark empty streets of a city we were not expecting to be so plush. Syria's largest city, Aleppo had at one time been among the most important of the Ottoman Empire, after Constantinople (now Istanbul) and Cairo.
It is home to the famous Hotel Baron, where T.E Lawrence stayed in room 202 and Agatha Christie wrote 'Murder on the Orient Express.'
The manager gave us his personal guide of the Dead Cities in his pride and joy, a pristine old Cadillac shined to perfection.
We spent the day exploring the majestic ruins of St Simeon and Qatuaro in cold, bright February sunshine, our every question catered for by our entertaining host.
He was so proud of Syria, so thrilled to show it off.
We stayed up late drinking gin and tonics on the hotel’s veranda and he read my palm, seeing me in my future surrounded by tall trees. (Accurate).
A friend of a friend brought us to an ancient monastery consisting of a network of caves cut out of a mountain side somewhere in the mountains near Maaloula, near Damascus, one of three remaining villages where Aramaic, the language of Jesus was still spoken. We attended a Christian orthodox candlelit mass in a chapel that had been used by Catholics, then Muslims and most recently, by shepherds minding sheep, before it was reopened again a monastery.
I never made it to the Golan Heights, where the Battle of Armageddon is prophesied to take place. It's a bullet ridden no mans land marking the border with Israel. Permission to travel there required a visa booked many weeks in advance along with a guide to navigate landmines.
I wonder how much of Syria will be left like that after this current upheaval finds closure.
I fear for the future of Syria's people, the warmest, most fun and genuine people I’ve ever encountered. Their delicate, civilised society is poised to be smashed, but by whom it is difficult to know.
(March 2012)
*Any coffees from this post will go Mary’s Meals
The charity feeds more than 5,000 children in Aleppo.
A team of volunteers prepare lunches in one school that *has reliable access to water and electricity. The food is then delivered to the other locations across the city.
https://www.marysmeals.ie/what-we-do/where-we-work/syria
And we are all just people who need and want the same things. Mostly. Thanks Louise.
The 8 billion are coming out of slumber, the world over just wants to live. There but for the grace of god, go I. Treat him well he is your brother. Something to be tattooed on foreheads of the worlds controlers. Well done Louise, great article.