The destructive earthquake that hit southern Turkiye and northern Syria this morning is underscoring the cruelty of the U.S. policy of regime change and economic sanctions on Syria. Independent journalist Vanessa Beeley, who resides in Damascus, told RT in an interview that Syrian emergency services have been suffering from the lack of supply of equipment because of the sanctions. As a result, “they are dealing with a disaster that is really beyond their capability.”
Beeley noted that the sanctions have devastated the systems of hospitals “and rendered them incapable of providing certain medical operations, medical assistance.” Furthermore the U.S. occupation of northeastern Syria by the U.S. military means that no oil is going to western Syria, which prevents the generation of electricity. There’s no shelter for people who have been made homeless, leaving many thousands out in a driving rainstorm, “so everything is being complicated by the conditions, by the remnants of the war, and most of all, by the sanctions.” Not one Western country, Beeley said, had stepped up to provide aid to Damascus to actually deal with this emergency. This is despite an appeal made by Syria to the UN and international organizations to respond to the earthquake emergency.
