In the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria,
calls to lift sanctions on Syria flooded social media.
But a lot of what spread was riddled with misinformation
Like: this viral picture - Many claimed the airspace over
Syria was empty because western sanctions were preventing aid from being flown in.
Syrian airspace is still classified as high-risk
and civilian aircraft operators in many countries are not allowed to use it.
Air traffic is a poor indicator for the impact of sanctions.
Some countries - particularly within the Middle East - as well as allies like Iran
and China did fly in aid, information published by Syria’s own state-run agency SANA shows
But at the time western governments were still hesitant to fly in aid - because Syrian President
Bashar al-Assad insisted all aid flown into the country go through him and his regime.
As news of the devastation spread and calls for aid deliveries grew louder - the Assad government
saw a golden opportunity for propaganda. SANA published pictures of school children
holding up banners calling to lift sanctions. But notice the uniforms and the logo.
These pictures bear the marks of Assad’s propaganda machine — Assad’s Baath party
is notorious for indoctrinating young students into youth organizations affiliated with it.
Protests like these are compulsory. - something
I know from my own experience attending school in Syria.
So, are calls to lift sanctions just a ploy by the regime
or are sanctions really hurting ordinary Syrians?
When the earthquakes hit Syria - they hit a lot of the opposition-controlled northwest,
like the governorate of Idlib,
as well as parts of Aleppo governorate controlled by turkey and allied opposition forces
A region where over 4.5 million people live in dire conditions -
completely isolated from the rest of Syria.
A region where the only remaining lifeline is through border crossings with Turkey.
Assad’s ongoing embargo has controlled who and what gets to that region from within the
borders of Syria. Because of this - the lifting of sanctions on the
country will not ease harsh conditions for Syrians there - This may explain why calls
to remove sanctions are mainly coming from regime-held areas.
The earthquake also devastated Syria’s second-largest city Aleppo
and the port city of Latakia -
both of which are under the control of Assad and his government -
A government under heavy sanctions. Syria has been under US sanctions since
1979. That was when Washington designated it as a state sponsor of terrorism
The Assad family - which took power in 1971 - has now been under US sanctions for over 4 decades.
but the harshest sanctions yet on Syria came at the end of 2019, when it passed what it
called - Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act It took the pseudonym of a reporter,
a photographer who provided proof to the US Congress … of the torture
that was happening in Assad prison Before defecting, Caesar's job was to
photograph prisoners who had died within the walls of Syria’s notorious prison system.
What he provided was actual multimedia evidence of the gross human rights abuses that were happening
in these prisons, things like the torture of prisoners, not allowing them access to food
or water for a prolonged period of time, physical abuse, mental abuse, all things that are not only
against national law, but international law, which prompted this intervention by the US at the time
Mohammed Alaa Ghanem: Head of Policy - Syrian American Council +++ In 2014 and summer of 2014
here in Washington, D.C., we were able to host a defector, a regime military defector who used
to be a photographer, basically for the military police, the same branch that I was arrested by.
Mohammed Alaa Ghanem is one of many Syrians victimized
by the Assad regime who pushed for sanctions. He describes himself as an accidental activist.
I was arrested and I was thrown in jail on trumped up charges of impersonating a security
police officer, something I never did. CUT So I witnessed. I witnessed firsthand eyewitness
torture. And I saw this was my first chance I had ever had in my life to see what the regime looked
like on the inside. And that experience truly traumatized me and that it stayed with me for
a long time. And I would say that that experience is what set me on this path that I'm on today.
The Caesar photographs showed the deaths of some 6000 prisoners within Syria's prison system.
But over 100,000 people are still missing - even after 12 years of civil war.
One of the key objectives of the sanctions is the release of these prisoners.
This act is supposed to be a tool. It's supposed to serve as a tool to hold war or criminals
accountable for the war crimes that they have committed, the kind of war crimes that people
saw in that Caesar photos. We made sure that it does not target populations at large. It
does not target sectors at large. It specifically targets war criminals, people like Bashar al-Assad
and and his cronies and people involved in this massive industrial killing machine.
Syrians who advocated for the sanctions also intended to put pressure on the Assad regime to
stop it from attacking rebel-held areas That's less about punishing al-Assad
and more about preventing al-Assad from doing these things any further in the future.
The sanctions do help. The sanctions do limit. But of course, there are still
ways to evade every sanction. - research shows that the regime
is evading a lot of the sanctions, and that the sanctions are hurting civilians
Evading sanctions has becomea Syrian craft. There are mechanisms
for it and it's doable. When it comes to investments,
there are companies that are indifferent to sanctions
because they don't deal with the west anyway. And businesses that are wary of sanctions
can avoid using their real names. And this is easy.
In the past two years - I’ve spoken to many Syrians that have nothing to do
with the Syrian government - who say they have felt the repercussions of the US sanctions.
Many have been barred from opening US dollar bank accounts or have had their transactions blocked.
It's easy for people who are far from the - let's say - from the direct effect of those
sanctions to think: 'Oh, yeah, we are targeting the government and we want to achieve political
interests'. And I fully understand that. Ziad Alkamoua is a Syrian from Latakia living in
the Netherlands. He says his family has personally suffered from overcompliance with sanctions.
My father about two years ago needed an operation.
Because his arteries were blocked and the operation was urgent and we couldn't do it
on time because when I transferred the money from… because there's no way to send money to
Syria, you send it mostly by people who you know or and who you trust. So I had to transfer the
money from my bank account in the Netherlands to a friend, a very good friend of mine in Germany.
And the transaction was blocked. And the only reason for that, because I mentioned Syria.
And then I called the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Netherlands and I told them there
is exemption and this should be implemented in such a situation, but they refused to intervene.
So that led at the end. My father has major negative consequences so he can't walk now.
He has a lot of difficulties with walking. He needs help. So those sanctions
impacted my father as well. These incidents are known as
unintended consequences of sanctions. It is important to note that, yes,
this whole it can’t be perfect, right? So the whole package cannot possibly be perfect because
even though we sanction designers, try to account for everything, there are still things you just
can't account for and unintended consequences. Professor Alena Douhan is an expert who visited
Syria last year to assess the impact of sanctions for the UN Human Rights Council
I'm not touching the political elements, but from the factual grounds and from the facts which
I'm collecting, sanctions end up in affecting specifically designated individuals, but much
more the effect in the population of the country as a whole in every single area, starting from
the access to food and access to health facility and up to the economic, social, cultural rights
Syria is now under both US and UN sanctions - both of them claim to have humanitarian exemptions:
Our sanctions do not target humanitarian aid. Our sanctions have long-standing authorizations,
long-standing carveouts to see to it humanitarian
aid is allowed to go into Syria. I categorically reject the accusations
that European Union sanctions may have any impact on humanitarian aid. And they are
designed in such a way to avoid any negative effects on Syria's people.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. I had the possibility to talk to the UN agencies, to many
international and non-governmental organizations while being in Syria before the earthquake,
and all humanitarian exceptions were already in force. And they are complaining that theoretically
they exist, but at the same time they are only focusing on food and medicine. And even food and
medicine can't be delivered fully because, for example, it is delivery to the public hospital.
Many donors are very reluctant to provide money to provide funds because it's a
public hospital and it can be interpreted as enhancing the capacity of the government.
Professor Douhan argues that the text of the sanctions that decides who exactly is
targeted and for what purpose is vague. In addition to targeting specific regime
entities that are responsible for crimes against humanity - the text of the sanctions
also target reconstruction and development. And this leaves room for interpretation.
Formally, many entities are not under sanctions,
but take into account that one of the purposes of sanctions is to
prevent reconstruction and rebuilding and enhancing of the governmental capacity.
All public area is considered to be blocked. According to Douhan’s research - this prevents
NGOs from training public school teachers - from offering courses or educational
opportunities to public employees of all sectors - including doctors.
All that has been interpreted as providing the benefits for reconstruction and rebuilding. And
therefore, no humanitarian exceptions could ever be given for dealing with these organizations.
If the meaning of concepts like “reconstruction” and “humanitarian aid” are not broken down - it
leaves space for interpretation. And companies and banks who fear sanctions,
will choose to over comply. In the aftermath of the earthquake.
A lot of fundraising campaigns were shut down in the first few days.
Then on February 9 - the US issued a license relaxing sanctions on transactions
related to short-term earthquake relief for a total of 180 days.
When you lift sanctions or when you suspend sanctions in a way that does
not insure against abuse, that sends a message to the victims that your abuser,
the regime that victimized you, is once again allowed to to operate with
impunity. So it's very disturbing for us. The people who argue for sanctions rightly
say that the Assad regime takes most resources. And that's something that we've known. The Assad
regime has always been parasitic. But my argument would be that even if two or 3%
trickles to the Syrian people, maybe the case is there to be made that it's worth it.
On Feb 27 - the US house of representatives overwhelmingly voted on a resolution
urging the Biden administration to continue implementing the Caesar Act sanctions
Since the Caesar Act was imposed - Syria saw a record increase in prices of more than 800%
in just two years alone. 90 percent of Syrians live below the poverty line.
It’s difficult to quantify how much of the deterioration of
living conditions Syrians are experiencing
are *directly* because of the sanctions on their country - in terms of percentage.
But many in regime-controlled parts believe the sanctions are making their life worse.
Sanctions aren't the main problem. Assad is the main problem, which needs to be a real change.
But there's enough room to question whether or not these sanctions are going to bring about that real
change and whether the cost that's being paid by Syrian people living under Assad since the
sanctions have been increased with the Caesar Act is too high for the positive outcome.
I would say the economy has collapsed completely because for the past 13 years, the regime has
prioritized its war machine. The only way we see a transition beyond that, the only way we see an
end to this so that Syrians can recover once again is for this regime. That's the cause, the primary
cause of all of the suffering to leave. While there have been trials for individuals,
there is currently no clear legal way to prosecute Syria’s government as a
whole - it is not a member of the International Criminal Court and Russia continues to veto all
UN Security Council resolutions that aim to hold Assad’s regime accountable.