The argument that humanitarian provisions outweigh the burden that sanctions place on the Syrian masses is difficult to justify given that major humanitarian organizations operating in Syria have identified the sanctions as a cause of the country’s pain.
Last month, the latest round of United States sanctions, known as the Caesar Act, took effect against Syria, a country already in a dire situation after nine years of war and sanctions and it has exacerbated the Syrian people’s plight. The New York Times (6/15/20) noted that the Caesar Act is “likely to make matters worse.” The Syrian pound fell to 3,500 to the dollar on the black market,” and that “prices for imported staples such as sugar, coffee, flour and rice have doubled or tripled." The act punishes the Syrian population as a whole.
As far back as 2012, the Danish Institute for International Studies, commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, compiled a report that examined the effects of sanctions in place up to that point. It found that they “come at a significant socioeconomic cost to the Syrian population...Thus, through second-order effects, the sanctions add to the socioeconomic costs of the conflict and are likely to exacerbate pre-existing socioeconomic difficulties, particularly affecting the lower social strata of the population...".
Targeting Syria’s oil and gas industries amounts to targeting the Syrian population; at the peak of pre-war production, oil generated about a quarter of government revenues — revenues that pay for health, education, pensions, water, electricity, and food and fuel subsidies. Syrians have to live amid ruin irrespective of whether they are “the regime’s supporters. By instituting more of the sanctions that have made it nearly impossible to import medical instruments and other medical supplies, and that have led to shortages of medicines. The squeeze on average Syrians has led to Syrian children with cancer being unable to obtain necessary treatment. In 2013, Médecins Sans Frontières reported: "Before this conflict, Syria had a well-functioning health system. The country has trained health workers, medical expertise and a pharmaceutical industry. But today resources are depleted. Health networks are breaking down because of supply problems and drug shortages resulting from the collapse of the pharmaceutical industry, or indirectly from international sanctions imposed on Syria."
Last month, the latest round of United States sanctions, known as the Caesar Act, took effect against Syria, a country already in a dire situation after nine years of war and sanctions and it has exacerbated the Syrian people’s plight. The New York Times (6/15/20) noted that the Caesar Act is “likely to make matters worse.” The Syrian pound fell to 3,500 to the dollar on the black market,” and that “prices for imported staples such as sugar, coffee, flour and rice have doubled or tripled." The act punishes the Syrian population as a whole.
As far back as 2012, the Danish Institute for International Studies, commissioned by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, compiled a report that examined the effects of sanctions in place up to that point. It found that they “come at a significant socioeconomic cost to the Syrian population...Thus, through second-order effects, the sanctions add to the socioeconomic costs of the conflict and are likely to exacerbate pre-existing socioeconomic difficulties, particularly affecting the lower social strata of the population...".
Targeting Syria’s oil and gas industries amounts to targeting the Syrian population; at the peak of pre-war production, oil generated about a quarter of government revenues — revenues that pay for health, education, pensions, water, electricity, and food and fuel subsidies. Syrians have to live amid ruin irrespective of whether they are “the regime’s supporters. By instituting more of the sanctions that have made it nearly impossible to import medical instruments and other medical supplies, and that have led to shortages of medicines. The squeeze on average Syrians has led to Syrian children with cancer being unable to obtain necessary treatment. In 2013, Médecins Sans Frontières reported: "Before this conflict, Syria had a well-functioning health system. The country has trained health workers, medical expertise and a pharmaceutical industry. But today resources are depleted. Health networks are breaking down because of supply problems and drug shortages resulting from the collapse of the pharmaceutical industry, or indirectly from international sanctions imposed on Syria."
According to the Washington Post, the Syrian government’s prospects of "reconstructing the economy have suffered a severe setback…. For that, some credit is due to Congress." The newspaper is in effect, applauding the maximization of the pain felt by Syrians, since everyone who lives in Syria—and many Syrians who live outside of it— are necessarily affected by the country’s economy.
In April 2020, the Red Crescent said that the sanctions were combining with the effects of war and a regional economic downturn to “generate further hardship for many vulnerable Syrians.” It later explained that the "recent harsher economic sanctions have exacerbated humanitarian needs, making the situation more untenable than ever before, for civilians with no stake to the conflict."
Are sanctions really “saving” Syrians by denying them food and medicine?
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