The West implements the scorched earth policy in Syria

Sanctions increase civilian suffering

Western sanctions prevent Syrians from going to universities or even to get treatment and education

Syrian Snack – Damascus

Thousands of Syrians are unable to go to hospitals and treatment centers because of the country’s fuel crisis, which has paralyzed transport movement inside Syria.

Thousands of public cars (taxi) are parked to the right of the roads free of gasoline; these cars used to transport patients from their homes to the main hospitals, especially from the governorates to the Syrian capital Damascus, where the main public hospitals and quality and specialized treatment centers

Cancer patients who go to Damascus for treatment were unable to go from Hama in central Syria due to the unavailability of “fuel ” says “Fadi ” who wants to take his mother to “Damascus” for treatment for 4 days ago and cannot because of the unavailability of the fuel, and now his mother is two days late on her dosage date.

Local Radio “Zenobia” in Homs announced that the fuel crisis even affected Syrian Red Crescent ambulances.

At the same time, thousands of young people have been unable to go to their universities to receive education because of the lack of transportation or their inability to provide fuel for their cars.

As for cars that transport students to schools, they also apologized for working due to the lack of fuel, causing students to drop out of school.

Transportation means that are not working due to this crisis are also the livelihood source of their owners whose work has been severely damaged as they lost their basic means of income, says “Yamen” who is a taxi driver from Swaida that did not succeed in filling his car with fuel for two days now and therefore he is unemployed until he finds fuel for his car.

Syria’s current crisis is due to the scorched-earth policy of the west towards the country, implemented by imposing severe sanctions that increase the suffering of Syrians.

Western press reports consistently show widespread criticism of the governments of the “United States” and “EU” countries over the sanctions they impose on the Syrian people under the pretext of fighting the Syrian government.

Western newspapers also mention the effects of sanctions on Syrian citizens who are paying the bill for Western decisions by testing more suffering in their country in addition to the tragedy of the eight-year-old conflict.

The American newspaper, The Washington Post, in a report on the Syrian street scene in light of the fuel crisis in the country, noted that the main cause of the crisis was due to Western sanctions and the renewal of U.S. sanctions to prevent the supply of petroleum products to Syria

The US newspaper also mentioned the US Treasury’s recent decision to impose sanctions on ships destined for “Syria” from anywhere in the world and whatever its payload, which added a new burden on the supply of products and goods to “Syria” including oil derivatives and whose shortage resulted into a suffocating crisis causing additional suffering for the citizens who are forced to crowd for hours on the long lines of fuel stations waiting for a little amounts of fuel.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. arm of sanctions, clearly stated in November that it would aggressively target all maritime operators involved in what it termed “transferring oil derivatives” to Syria, including shipping, insurance and banking companies, a declaration that made it worse and caused Syria’s current hydrocarbon crisis.

Medicines and medical supplies and equipment are also within the scope of targeting in Western sanctions, although they are not explicitly mentioned in penal laws as experts describe Western sanctions as the most complex ever

The “Reuters” agency said in a report that the World Health Organization (WHO) agrees with the Syrian government that Western sanctions cause severe shortages of medicines and medical equipment.

The agency said in its report that doctors in hospitals were unable to provide assistance to children affected by cancer due to the absence of the required medication, and the agency quoted the representative of the World Health Organization, Elizabeth Huff, as saying that “sanctions prevent many international drug companies from dealing with the Syrian government. It also hinders foreign banks in dealing with payments of imported medicines”.

The newspaper “The Independent” of Britain said that relief agencies and humanitarian organizations have difficulty in delivering humanitarian aid and health care to civilians affected by the sanctions, according to a leaked report from the “UN” where the sanctions have practically targeted the materials Food, fuel and medicine.

In the same time, relief organizations are unable to purchase medicines or medical equipment because of the prohibitions imposed by the sanctions, which prohibit banks from carrying out any dealings related to “Syria”. So you can imagine how much the Syrian people are suffering today.

As for “The European Council for External Relations“, it stated that Western sanctions represent the scorched earth policy and arbitrarily target civilians, arguing that the policy of sanctions that aimed at altering the behavior of the Syrian government to suit the western trend is wrong and the effects of the sanctions confirm that this policy targets the most vulnerable civilians on the ground and is absolutely destructive and inhumane.

On media platforms, “United States” and European countries always talk about and call for protecting civilians and defend the rights of Syrians, but they impose on the ground sanctions that affect severely the daily details and livelihood of the Syrian citizens and threaten their life as if they are following the principle that says “their hearts with us and their sanctions to us.”