After catastrophe in Syria, US sanctions worsen humanitarian crisis

ALEPPO, Syria-"They (the United States) must lift the sanctions. Shame on them," an earthquake survivor in the city of Aleppo, northwestern Syria, said angrily, denouncing US sanctions that have made it extremely difficult for the city and other earthquake-hit areas in Syria to get much-needed international humanitarian aid.

"We need help, but we can't get it because of the US sanctions," said Aisha al-Hilu, a teacher living in Aleppo. Her family fled their home without taking any belongings and desperately need food and clothes in the cold and rainy weather, she said.

Aleppo is among the cities hit hardest by Monday's powerful earthquakes, which shook large swathes of land along the Turkish-Syrian border.

After the quakes, walking in the old city gives people a sense of familiarity because the scenes of destruction are nothing new in Aleppo. A large part of the city was ruined in fierce battles between 2012 and 2016. The powerful earthquakes, which have killed thousands in Syria and Turkiye, have added more scars to the city's broken torso.

Muhammad Baslat, a public servant in the city, said that while his memory of the war remains vivid and fresh, the earthquakes have exacerbated the anguish of the Syrians.

"The war and its woes are still not far behind us. And those who survived the cruel war now have to struggle to survive this. The US sanctions are unjustified and unfair and are putting more strains on us at this difficult time."

Aleppo and several other northern Syrian provinces are also places most ravaged by Syria's civil war. The decadelong war and Western sanctions have damaged infrastructure and impoverished millions in northern Syria, making locals more vulnerable to natural disasters.

The semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani as calling on countries to pressure the US into lifting the sanctions on Syria and the siege of the country to enable international aid to be delivered.

"The people of northern Syria are really suffering. Sanctions are stifling international relief and medical supplies. Thousands of deaths in Syria are preventible; earthquake relief should pause sanctions," Khaled Beydoun, associate professor of law at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

Xinhua - Agencies