{"id":2618,"date":"2022-12-23T22:48:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T22:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/geostrategy.club\/2022\/12\/23\/us-sanctions-are-killing-syrians-and-are-a-human-rights-violation\/"},"modified":"2024-06-27T10:06:28","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T08:06:28","slug":"us-sanctions-are-killing-syrians-and-are-a-human-rights-violation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/geostrategy.club\/zh\/us-sanctions-are-killing-syrians-and-are-a-human-rights-violation\/","title":{"rendered":"US Sanctions Are Killing Syrians and Are a Human Rights Violation"},"content":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0Steven Sahiounie<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Damascus is now bitterly cold<\/a>\u00a0and is soon to be blanketed with snow. About 12 million Syrians are facing a deadly winter without heating fuel, gasoline for transportation, and dark houses each evening without electricity. Aleppo, Homs, and Hama are also extremely cold all winter.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Imagine being ill and having to walk to the doctor or hospital.\u00a0 The ambulances in Syria will now respond only to the most life-threatening calls because they must conserve gasoline, or face running out entirely. Gasoline on the black market costs Syrians an equivalent of\u00a050 US dollars for a tank<\/a>\u00a0of 20-liter fuel.<\/span><\/p>\n Sanctions against Syria were imposed by the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Switzerland, the Arab League, as well as other countries beginning in 2011. The sanctions were aimed at overthrowing the Syrian government, by depriving it of its resources. US-sponsored \u2018regime change\u2019 has failed but the sanctions were never lifted.<\/span><\/p>\n For 12 years the US and EU have been imposing economic sanctions on Syria which have deprived the Syrians of their dignity and human rights.<\/span><\/p>\n UN Special Rapporteur on human rights,\u00a0Alena Douhan, urged sanctions to be lifted against Syria<\/a>, warning that they were adding to the suffering of the Syrian people since 2011.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI am struck by the pervasiveness of the\u00a0human rights and humanitarian impact<\/a>\u00a0of the unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria and the total economic and financial isolation of a country whose people are struggling to rebuild a life with dignity, following the decade-long war,\u201d Douhan said.<\/span><\/p>\n After a 12-day visit to Syria, Douhan said the majority of Syria\u2019s population was currently living below the poverty line, with shortages of food, water, electricity, shelter, cooking and heating fuel, transportation, and healthcare. She spoke of the continuing exodus of educated and skilled Syrians in response to the economic hardship of living at home.<\/span><\/p>\n Douhan reported that the majority of infrastructure was destroyed or damaged, and the sanctions imposed on oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction, and engineering have diminished the national income, which has prevented economic recovery and reconstruction.<\/span><\/p>\n The sanctions prevent payments from being received from banks, and deliveries from foreign manufacturers. Serious shortages in medicine and medical equipment have plagued hospitals and clinics. The lack of a water treatment system in Aleppo caused a severe Cholera outbreak in late summer, and the system cannot be bought, installed, or maintained under the current US sanctions against Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n Douhan said,<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI urge the immediate lifting of all unilateral sanctions<\/a>\u00a0that severely harm human rights and prevent any efforts for early recovery, rebuilding, and reconstruction.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In 1998,\u00a0Richard Haass wrote, \u2018Economic Sanctions: Too Much of a Bad Thing\u2019.<\/a>\u00a0 He cautioned US foreign policymakers that sanctions alone are ineffective when the aims are large, or the time is short.\u00a0 The overthrow of the Syrian government is a massive aim, and the sanctions did not accomplish that goal.<\/span><\/p>\n Haass predicted that sanctions could cause economic distress and migration.\u00a0 In the summer of 2015 about half a million Syrians walked through Europe as economic migrants and were taken in primarily by Germany.<\/span><\/p>\n There is a moral imperative to stop using sanctions as a foreign policy tool because\u00a0innocent people are affected<\/a>, while the sanctions have failed.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the\u00a0US government, the sanctions on Syria<\/a>\u00a0\u201cprohibits new investments in Syria by US persons, prohibits the exportation or sale of services to Syria by US persons, prohibits the importation of petroleum or petroleum products of Syrian origin, and prohibits US persons from involvement in transactions involving Syrian petroleum or petroleum products.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n There is a\u00a0waiver that can be requested<\/a>\u00a0from the Department of Commerce, to circumvent the sanctions; however, it only applies to sending items to the terrorist-occupied area of Idlib. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria and is the only terrorist group now holding territory in Syria.<\/span><\/p>\n On October 22, the media\u00a0Energy World<\/a>\u00a0reported the US occupation forces had smuggled 92 tankers and trucks of Syrian oil and wheat stolen from northeastern Syria to US bases in Iraq. The theft is ongoing and continuous.<\/span><\/p>\n The US has partnered with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which is a Kurdish militia that has a political wing following the communist ideology begun by the PKK\u2019s Abdullah Ocalan. President Trump ordered the US military to remain to occupy northeastern Syria and he ordered the US soldiers there to steal the Syrian oil so to prevent the Syrian people in the rest of the country from benefiting from the gasoline and electricity produced from the wells.<\/span><\/p>\n The Syrian Oil Ministry said in August that the US forces were stealing 80 percent of Syria\u2019s oil production, causing direct and indirect\u00a0losses of about 107.1 billion to Syria\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0oil and gas industry.<\/span><\/p>\n Because the Damascus government is deprived of the oil its wells produce, it is forced to depend on costly imported oil, usually from Iran. The US routinely commandeers Iranian tankers, such as the incident recently when the US Navy took a tanker hostage off the coast of Greece on its way to Syria but was eventually released by Greece.<\/span><\/p>\n The government has instituted a three-day weekend for schools and civil offices, as well as suspended sports events to save fuel.<\/span><\/p>\n Maurice Haddad<\/a>, Director of the General Company for Internal Transport in Damascus, told the al-Watan newspaper that the government has set stricter diesel quotas, leading to fewer daily bus services.<\/span><\/p>\n Athar-Press news website reported that several bakeries in Damascus have had to shut down because of the lack of fuel.<\/span><\/p>\n Fuel is needed to generate electricity in Syria, and the lack of domestic or imported fuel means most homes in Syria have about one hour of electricity at several intervals each day, and the amount is diminishing daily.<\/span><\/p>\n The only two areas in Syria which are not under the Damascus administration are Idlib in the northwest and the US-sponsored Kurdish region in the northeast.\u00a0 The US sanctions are exempt from sending items to those two places only. But, those two places represent a small number of Syrians in comparison to the civilians across the country, and the main cities of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, and Latakia.\u00a0 The US makes sure the people who are against the Syrian government continue to be rewarded with supplies and reconstruction, while the millions of peaceful civilians are kept in a constant state of suffering and deprivation.<\/span><\/p>\n Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.<\/span><\/p>\n This article was originally published on\u00a0Mideast Discourse<\/a>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Steven Sahiounie<\/strong>\u00a0is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular\u00a0contributor to Global Research.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Featured image is from\u00a0Eva Bartlett<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n By\u00a0Steven Sahiounie<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Damascus is now bitterly cold<\/a>\u00a0and is soon to be blanketed with snow. About 12 million Syrians are facing a deadly winter without heating fuel, gasoline for transportation, and dark houses each evening without electricity. Aleppo, Homs, and Hama are also extremely cold all winter.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Imagine being ill and having to walk to the doctor or hospital.\u00a0 The ambulances in Syria will now respond only to the most life-threatening calls because they must conserve gasoline, or face running out entirely. Gasoline on the black market costs Syrians an equivalent of\u00a050 US dollars for a tank<\/a>\u00a0of 20-liter fuel.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[688,689,145],"class_list":["post-2618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geopolitika","tag-sanctions","tag-steven-sahiounie","tag-syria"],"yoast_head":"\nNew UN report asks for lifting sanctions on Syria<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
US sanctions are not effective<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
The US steals Syrian oil, and will not allow imported oil to arrive<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
Gasoline shortage\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n
Sanction exemptions for Idlib and the Kurds only<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n