The Caesar Sanctions instituted in 2019 against Syria, and prior sanctions dating back to 2011, which Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche characterized in 2022 as “a brutal form of warfare,” have so systematically eviscerated the Syrian physical economy and people, that it was easier for the Islamic State offshoot, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), to conquer the country.
Syria was once a growing, multicultural nation. The European Union enforced sanctions against Syria in 2011; the U.S. enforced the Caesar Civilian Protection Act sanctions in 2019, on top of those in force.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report “Syrian Arab Republic Access to Electricity and Humanitarian Needs,” in March 2022 documents the destruction of Syria’s electrical generation capacity and much more. During the Western-shaped Islamic State’s ferocious wars against Syria, two of the country’s thirteen major power plants were fully destroyed—the Zeyzoun Power Plant in Idlib province (487 MW installed capacity), and the Aleppo Thermal Power Station (1,065 MW installed capacity). The World Bank reported that six other plants were partially destroyed.
“As a result of this damage, the country’s electricity generation capacity fell from 5,800 MW in 2010 … to 4,000 MW in 2018,” the OCHA conveys. The further tightening of sanctions caused Syria’s installed electricity generation capacity to fall to 2,000 MW in 2021, a collapse, compared to 2010, of 63%. Further, whereas, in 2010, “93% of the country had access to electricity,” that is sharply down today: Compared to 2010 standards, today’s Syrian population consumes 85% less electricity per capita. Fully 30% of Syria’s population has access to electricity for 2 hours per day. That slashes electricity to industry, and households.
But electricity is the source for powering all other features of society. Around 2010, “access to safe drinking water in Syria was estimated at 92% in rural communities and 98% in urban centers. Seven major water systems serve the country’s eight largest cities…. However, by 2019 annual public water production in Syria had fallen by 40% relative to pre-crisis levels (from 1,700 million cubic meters in 2010 to 1,020 mn cubic meters in 2019.” The study specifies that in order to access water from groundwater and springs, or most rivers, requires continuous electricity to pump and distribute the water.
The slashing of electricity and water, and the sanctions’ blocking of importation of basic and advanced capital goods of all kinds, had the intended grinding effect.
The OCHA’s ReliefWeb humanitarian information service reported on March 12, 2022, “this year, 90% of Syrians live below the poverty line, and more than 80% are food insecure. Families say they are eating less, cutting meals, and going into debt to meet their basic needs.”
According to the World Bank data for 2023, the Syrian pound has depreciated by a factor of 50 from 2011 to 2023 (it is worth only 2% of its previous value). About 45% of the country’s housing stock has been ruined (a quarter of it completely); about 40% of educational institutions and more than half of healthcare facilities have been put out of operation.
Just as Libya was shattered and broken apart starting in 2011, Syria has likewise been deliberately shattered by the EU and Anglo-American sanctions, even before Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist troops began their occupation on Nov. 27.
