‘Punishing civilians, undermining aid work’

US and EU sanctions on Syria are punishing civilians and undermining aid work, states a 40-page UN report, “Humanitarian impact of Syria-related unilateral restrictive measures”, prepared for the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. 

Calling the conflict in Syria, the “largest humanitarian crisis since World War II, the report says that 13 million Syrians require aid. Of these, four million are in difficult-to-reach locations due to fighting and sieges, while 6 million are internally displaced.

The dire humanitarian situation and “the weakening of state structures” have compelled Syrians to flee their country and contributed to the rise of Daesh.

While UN appeals for aid amount to $7.7 billion, delivery of aid is hindered by a complex network of US and EU sanctions targeting the Syrian government, and entities and individuals connected with it.

These sanctions involve asset freezes, restrictions on financial services and bans on the import of “dual use” goods.

The US prohibits imports to Syria containing US-manufactured components valued at 10 per cent or more of the cost of the items.

The report argues that the US and EU sanctions “are some of the most complicated and far-reaching sanctions ever imposed”.

These sanctions recall the crippling sanctions imposed on Iraq in 1990, which killed an estimated half a million Iraqi children over six years before the oil-for-food programme eased conditions.

Even when reduced, the sanctions on Iraq, which lasted until 2003, destroyed the Iraqi economy and undermined social cohesion, while failing to limit the powers of president Saddam Hussein.

The impoverishment of the Iraqi people contributed to the sectarian conflict after the US invasion and occupation during the spring of 2003.

An apparently insurmountable problem for humanitarian agencies is to effect the transfer of funds for projects and essential aid to those in need in Syria.

While the UN report gives certain cases where there have been major difficulties with large transfers, Antiquities Department head Maamoun Abdulkarim said sanctions impact even the salaries of Syrians guarding archaeological excavations formerly carried out by foreign teams and have forced some teams to carry cash from Beirut to Damascus so employees can be paid.

Since financial sanctions imposed by the US — which controls the global flow of dollars — have made it nearly impossible to transfer funds into Syria, humanitarian agencies had to resort to money exchanges (hawala), which lack transparency and are used as conduits by extremist groups like Daesh.

Obstacles to the importation into Syria of medicines and medical equipment are particularly harmful.

Before the conflict, Syria was largely self-sufficient in the production of medicines. During the war, the majority of plants producing medicines were destroyed or dismembered and exported to Turkey by militants.

The World Health Organisation has drawn up an 11-page list of essential medicines and medical equipment. But many items are unobtainable either because US manufactured or sanctioned.

Spare parts for the energy and electricity sector also face obstacles, even when the importer is a UN agency, leading to large-scale blackouts. Negotiations over parts can take months and raise costs. 

The acquisition of fuel is another problem and can cause cuts in water supplies due to the lack of fuel to operate generators.

An internal UN e-mail leaked to “The Intercept” and published in an article by Rania Khalek on September 28 this year blames US and EU sanctions for food shortages and the deterioration in Syrian healthcare.

The UN official warned said that sanctions caused a doubling of fuel prices over the past 18 months and caused a drop in wheat production of 40 per cent.

While the US State Department denied that sanctions have such negative impacts, it is all too obvious that sanctions imposed earlier by the US and its partners wrecked the economy of Iraq, undermined that of Iran and harmed Syria.

Syria attracted US sanctions in 1979 because of the government’s support of Palestinian resistance groups, regarded by Washington as “terrorist” organisations.

Further restrictions were imposed in May 2004 over Damascus’ military occupation of Lebanon — originally at the request of the government — and intervention in Lebanese internal affairs.

Since the unrest in Syria began in 2011, Washington has pursued harsher sanctions against Syrian individuals, banks, companies and institutions. 

The US Treasury Department targets non-Syrian banks, firms and institutions which break the punitive sanctions regime. 

In 2013, sanctions were eased in opposition-held areas and the US Central Intelligence Agency began to provide allegedly “non-lethal aid”, actually training and weapons for “vetted” anti-government fighters who soon handed over the weapons to or defected to taqfiri factions.

While sanctions have punished ordinary Syrians, US and EU aid to insurgents has kept the war going, killing Syrians and destroying the country.

As a Syrian friend observed over tea in a café in Damascus Old City, “the foreign powers want to promote their victories by shedding our blood”.

Of course, the US and EU do not even think of sanctions when Israel bludgeons Gaza, besieged and blockaded for more than a decade, far longer than Syria’s Aleppo, Madaya or Zabadani.

Instead, Israel receives $38 billion in military aid from the US to enable Tel Aviv to wage war on Gaza whenever it wishes.