Breaking The Western-imposed Siege Of Syria

Mujahid Walied

Sha'ban 09, 1444 2023-03-01

News & Analysis

by Mujahid Walied (News & Analysis, Crescent International Vol. 53, No. 1, Sha'ban, 1444)

Appalled by the weaponization of humanitarian aid to earthquake-devastated Syria, some groups have decided to break the US-imposed siege on the country. Despite US claims that it has eased sanctions to allow for humanitarian aid to be delivered to Syria, no international aid has reached areas under government control. All foreign aid so far has gone to areas under Daesh (aka ISIS) control in Idlib province.

Cut off from SWIFT, the international messaging system for money transfers, no western bank is prepared to send money to Syria fearing it might upset the Washington warlords. Thus, neither food, tents or money is going to Syria.

This intolerable situation has exacerbated the plight of Syrian people who have already suffered more than 11 years of war imposed by external powers through their terrorist proxies. Much of the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed. Thousands of people have now been killed in the earthquake and at least five million Syrians have lost their homes, according to UN figures.

With no international aid getting through, the Syrian people affected by the earthquake face an extremely uncertain future. There is little or no shelter in the sub-zero temperatures and no food either. Medical aid is also not available to those injured in the earthquake. How long can they survive in such difficult conditions?

A campaign to break the siege has been launched by Arab and international organizations to deliver food to the Syrian people. Headed by Magdi al-Masrawi, general coordinator for Arab and International Campaign to Break the Siege on Syria, the plan is for a number of convoys to converge from the west and east to deliver much-needed food and other essentials.

Syria’s SANA news agency reported that the campaign was launched on February 24 after a number of groups and individuals met to consider ways to deliver help to the devastated country. “The conferees studied a proposal to launch an Arab popular convoy from the west of the Arab world to its east under the title ‘The Arab Unity Convoy to Break the Embargo Imposed on Syria’ similar to the ‘Convoy of Arab Unity, Maryam’ to break the siege on Iraq, which started at the beginning of the current century from London towards Morocco, then towards Iraq,” the campaign said.

Al-Masrawi is the former secretary-general of the Arab National Congress. The campaign he heads said in a statement that it was agreed that members of the committee, along with members of the General Arab Conference, personalities and parties in solidarity with Syria, would conduct contacts in order to make the initiative a success.

The aim is to launch a broad-based effort to lead a convoy to break the long-running blockade imposed by the United States and the European Union on Syria. There have been increasing calls worldwide for sanctions on Syria to be lifted. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has also added his voice to these calls.

The US and its European allies, however, do not care for human lives, especially if they happen to be Muslim. They would rather support wars that kill innocent people than save innocent lives devastated by the earthquake.

Consider this. The US has provided more than $76 billion to Ukraine since Russia launched its special military operations exactly a year ago (February 24, 2022). More aid, especially in the form of military equipment, is on the way bringing this total to more than $105 billion.

Britain which announced a grand total of £6 million for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria (mostly Turkey) has already forked out £2.3 billion to Ukraine with more money and weapons in the pipeline. The European Union has also provided 53 billion euros to Ukraine to wage war over the opposition of many European citizens.

In Berlin, tens of thousands of people protested on February 25 against weapons supplies to Ukraine at a time when Germans are reeling under high food and energy prices. Similar protest rallies have been held in France and Britain.

While most of the striking workers in France and Britain do not care about the plight of Syrians, they are opposed to the billions being forked out to Ukraine to continue the war when they themselves are forced to suffer high food and energy prices.

Breaking the siege on Syria is necessary in order to deliver much-needed help to the Syrian people. The 11-year war has already resulted in more than 500,000 deaths and tens of millions displaced internally and externally. The earthquake has only exacerbated the plight of the Syrian people.

Like many other countries, Syria has been under US sanctions since 1979. These intensified with the US-zionist-Arab war unleashed against the country in 2011. The US and its western allies dramatically tightened their economic sanctions and restrictions while supplying billions of dollars in weapons to the terrorists.

It is also quite revealing that US Special Forces are occupying the oil producing regions of Syria and stealing the country’s oil and grain. The Syrian government has not given permission for the presence of US forces on its soil. These forces are illegally occupying Syrian territory. This are involved in war crimes since American forces are killing Syrian government forces and civilians. The Americans also support the zionist entity’s attacks on Syria the latest of which occurred on February 19 in which at least 19 Syrians, mostly civilians, were killed.