Internal United Nations assessments obtained by The Intercept reveal that U.S. and European sanctions are punishing ordinary Syrians and crippling aid work during the largest humanitarian emergency since World War II.
The sanctions and war have destabilized every sector of Syria’s economy, transforming a once self-sufficient country into an aid-dependent nation. But aid is hard to come by, with sanctions blocking access to blood safety equipment, medicines, medical devices, food, fuel, water pumps, spare parts for power plants, and more.
A 40-page internal assessment commissioned by the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia to analyze the humanitarian impact of the sanctions describes the U.S. and EU measures as “some of the most complicated and far-reaching sanctions regimes ever imposed.” Detailing a complex system of “unpredictable and time-consuming” financial restrictions and licensing requirements, the report finds that U.S. sanctions are exceptionally harsh “regarding provision of humanitarian aid.”
U.S. sanctions on Syrian banks have made the transfer of funds into the country nearly impossible. Even when a transaction is legal, banks are reluctant to process funds related to Syria for risk of incurring violation fees. This has given rise to an unofficial and unregulated network of money exchanges that lacks transparency, making it easier for extremist groups like ISIS and al Qaeda to divert funds undetected. The difficulty of transferring money is also preventing aid groups from paying local staff and suppliers, which has “delayed or prevented the delivery of development assistance in both government and besieged areas,” according to the report.
Trade restrictions on Syria are even more convoluted. Items that contain 10 percent or more of U.S. content, including medical devices, are banned from export to Syria. Aid groups wishing to bypass this rule have to apply for a special license, but the licensing bureaucracy is a nightmare to navigate, often requiring expensive lawyers that cost far more than the items being exported.
Syria was first subjected to sanctions in 1979, after the U.S. designated the Syrian government as a state sponsor of terrorism. More sanctions were added in subsequent years, though none more extreme than the restrictions imposed in 2011 in response to the Syrian government’s deadly crackdown on protesters.
In 2013 the sanctions were eased but only in opposition areas. Around the same time, the CIA began directly shipping weapons to armed insurgents at a colossal cost of nearly $1 billion a year, effectively adding fuel to the conflict while U.S. sanctions obstructed emergency assistance to civilians caught in the crossfire.
A man stacks packed Syrian lira bills at the Central Bank in Damascus on Aug. 25, 2011.
Photo: Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty Images
An internal U.N. email obtained by The Intercept also faults U.S. and EU sanctions for contributing to food shortages and deteriorations in health care. The August email from a key U.N. official warned that sanctions had contributed to a doubling in fuel prices in 18 months and a 40 percent drop in wheat production since 2010, causing the price of wheat flour to soar by 300 percent and rice by 650 percent. The email went on to cite sanctions as a “principal factor” in the erosion of Syria’s health care system. Medicine-producing factories that haven’t been completely destroyed by the fighting have been forced to close because of sanctions-related restrictions on raw materials and foreign currency, the email said.
As one NGO worker in Damascus told The Intercept, there are cars, buses, water systems, and power stations that are in serious need of repair all across the country, but it takes months to procure spare parts and there’s no time to wait. So aid groups opt for cheap Chinese options or big suppliers that have the proper licensing, but the big suppliers can charge as much as they want. If the price is unaffordable, systems break down and more and more people die from dirty water, preventable diseases, and a reduced quality of life.
Such conditions would be devastating for any country. In war-torn Syria, where an estimated 13 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance, the sanctions are compounding the chaos.
In an emailed statement to The Intercept, the State Department denied that the sanctions are hurting civilians.
“U.S. sanctions against [Syrian President Bashar al-Assad], his backers, and the regime deprive these actors of resources that could be used to further the bloody campaign Assad continues to wage against his own people,” said the statement, which recycled talking points that justified sanctions against Iraq in 1990s. The U.S. continued to rationalize the Iraq sanctions even after a report was released by UNICEF in 1999 that showed a doubling in mortality rates for children under the age of 5 after sanctions were imposed in the wake of the Gulf War, and the death of 500,000 children.
“The true responsibility for the dire humanitarian situation lies squarely with Assad, who has repeatedly denied access and attacked aid workers,” the U.S. statement on Syria continued. “He has the ability to relieve this suffering at any time, should he meet his commitment to provide full, sustained access for delivery of humanitarian assistance in areas that the U.N. has determined need it.”
Meanwhile, in cities controlled by ISIS, the U.S. has employed some of the same tactics it condemns. For example, U.S.-backed ground forces laid siege to Manbij, a city in northern Syria not far from Aleppo that is home to tens of thousands of civilians. U.S. airstrikes pounded the city over the summer, killing up to 125 civilians in a single attack. The U.S. also used airstrikes to drive ISIS out of Kobane, Ramadi, and Fallujah, leaving behind flattened neighborhoods. In Fallujah, residents resorted to eating soup made from grass and 140 people reportedly died from lack of food and medicine during the siege.
A Syrian man walks past an empty vegetable market in Aleppo on July 10, 2016, after the regime closed the only remaining supply route into the city.
Photo: Karam Al-Masri/AFP/Getty Images
Humanitarian concerns aside, the sanctions are not achieving their objectives. Five years of devastating civil war and strict economic sanctions have plunged over 80 percent of Syrians into poverty, up from 28 percent in 2010. Ferdinand Arslanian, a scholar at the Center for Syrian Studies at the University of St. Andrews, says that reduction in living standards and aid dependency is empowering the regime.
“Aid is now an essential part of the Syrian economy and sanctions give regime cronies in Syria the ability to monopolize access to goods. It makes everyone reliant on the government. This was the case in Iraq, with the food-for-oil system,” explained Arslanian.
“Sanctions have a terrible effect on the people more than the regime and Washington knows this from Iraq,” argues Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “But there’s pressure in Washington to do something and sanctions look like you’re doing something,” he added.
Despite the failure of sanctions, opposition advocates are agitating for even harsher measures that would extend sanctions to anyone who does business with the Syrian government. This, of course, would translate into sanctions against Russia.
“The opposition likes sanctions,” says Landis. “They were the people who advocated them in the beginning because they want to put any pressure they can on the regime. But it’s very clear that the regime is not going to fall, that the sanctions are not working. They’re only immiserating a population that’s already suffered terrible declines in their per capita GDP,” he added.
Read the report:
Update: September 30, 2016
The wording of a paragraph about U.S. tactics in Syria and Iraq has been altered to clarify that the U.S. used a strategy of airstrikes against Kobane, Ramadi, and Fallujah when they were controlled by ISIS forces.
Correction: October 4, 2016
Another sentence has been changed to correct an editing error. The report referenced was prepared for the U.N. and does not reflect the U.N.’s official position.
Top photo: A Syrian Red Crescent truck, part of a convoy carrying humanitarian aid, is seen in Kafr Batna on the outskirts of Damascus on Feb. 23, 2016, during an operation in cooperation with the U.N. to deliver aid to thousands of besieged Syrians.
Hey, boys and girls, the deal is done. After all the evil perpetrated by the USA and others (Turkey, Saudi, Emirates etc.) in Syria the U$A has finally come to the conclusion that Assad is going to survive and the alternative would have been daesh soo, Kerry signed a deal with Laverof agreeing to cooperate in defeating daesh so their days of occupying territory are coming to an end. The Russians are willing to release the text but the U$A will not have it. Hopefully someone will hack it so we can see it. Likely daesh will morph into an international terrorist organization using gorilla tactics, perhaps in the U$A. Look at this Syrian civil war as the first large scale Climate War of which there will be many to come as there is already too much GH gas in the atmosphere and a Geo Engineering solution is not likely any time soon if it’s possible at all. Both Syria and Iraq & Libya were desirable places to live in the Arab ME; secular dictatorships as they are all artificial states carved out of the ME by European Colonialism so they can not exist naturally as is the situation in most of Africa. Iran is Persian and was not conquered but economically occupied like Canada. The elected PM decided to kick out the British and use the oil for the benefit of the Iranian people; something like Norway and they may have become as rich as Norway. Unfortunately, the Brits asked Truman to depose the Iranian government (regime change); Truman to his credit refused so the had to wait for Eisenhower who did it, imposing the murderous Shaw on the country. After many years of repression, the people rose up and replaced the murderous Shaw with the murderous Ayatollah; all for control of the oil and $$$$$$. America has been screwing them over ever since although not one Amerikan diplomat was killed in the revolution. The large scale nasty things done by the dictators pale in comparison with what the North did to the South in the U$A when the South tried to leave. I really wish the Nuclear powers would get together and abolish and destroy all Nuclear weapons before they destroy us. U$A; go home and fix your own messes; that should keep you occupied for a century and start pulling your best brains off wall st. and find a way out of the existential crisis we are in; that would be useful.
Unfortunately, the yankee regime and its acolytes have evolved into enemies of civilization on all fronts. It’s a sort of soft Nazism without running extermination camps but instead running barbaric thugs ranging around areas with covert support from regime thugs, paid as mercenaries or there as covert military agents.
from August 2012:
The CIA proxy war in Syria and the pro-imperialist “left”
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/08/pers-a03.html
from April:
Plan B: CIA prepares to arm Syrian “rebels” with antiaircraft weapons
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/14/syri-a14.html
All sanctions everywhere hurt the little guy.
This is, ultimately, the point of the sanction.
So funny. Khalek uses the same arguments to defend Assad that the Israel Lobby uses to defend IDF assaults on Gaza.
”
Please point out in the article where “Khalek uses the same arguments to defend Assad that the Israel Lobby uses to defend IDF assaults on Gaza”, GilGa-leh.
Yes – couldn’t see what Louis Proyect was getting at in this document.
Since the subject of BDS has arisen below, I’ll take this opportunity to postthe linkto Glenn Greenwald’s Intercept interview with BDS co-founder, Omar Barghuoti, who lives in Israel and at the time was subject to an Israeli travel ban. Excerpt:
Hopefully the recommendations will be carried out. It won’t help the civilians being bombed in Aleppo and elsewhere but Russia seems disinterested sticking to its agreement with Kerry.
Glad to see the U.S. has given over $5 billion in humanitarian aid last year and will give another $5+ billion in the coming year.
GilGamesh: Your post reads like it was written by a DoS shill. Just saying.
Oh, yes. Our GilGa-leh is a sword swallower for Zion, through and through.
Are you for real.? The US destroyed the Truce Agreement when they bombed Syrian Government troops several days ago. This was deliberate, so the US would not have to cooperate with the Russians in destroyed jihadist rebels. The US military could not accept this condition.
That Rania Khalek is publishing here somewhat regularly is outstanding. She and The Intercept are a great match.
Who the hell came up with the “buy unamerican” rule? Sanctions I can see – you don’t sell to Syria, you don’t dock your US-flagged vessel in Syria, you don’t do business with them period. But how do you get from there to sorting things out according to whether they have “10% US content”, which is some kind of madman’s calculation, probably a sibling to the math the companies use to decide how much income they made outside the country!
It should be obvious that recognized international aid organizations like Red Crescent should be immune from sanctions, and you ought to be able to sell them whatever without asking where they’re going to take it. Maybe some basic security precautions to make sure there aren’t truckloads of munitions in there unsuited to humanitarian work, but nothing fancy should be necessary. Let the spies try to catch them doing something wrong with that exemption and revoke their status in one fell swoop if they do, but no penny ante games.
Excellent work. The mainstream media only prints war propaganda designed to garner support for the military campaign to overthrow the Syrian government.
Well said. Powerful countries like the US have the ability to white wash lies, shape international opinion and use the UN Security Council to serve their own agenda.
Excellent reporting and analysis, as usual. But given Russia’s recent all-out assault on civilians in this region, I continue to be baffled at the Intercept’s policy of speaking truth to power except when it’s Russia. Not a single story on this site about that authoritarian nightmare. Bewildering.
Not in the least.
Russia is not a Western power. This is overwhelmingly a Western site speaking truth to Western powers. (That includes Brazil, which most consider to be Western, and one of the co-founder lives there and is fluent in Portuguese.)
The Intercept has only been around since 2013; it’s Brazil office opened only a month or so ago. There are any number of U.S. domestic issues that still are not covered because the site is still an embryo.
It will almost certainly be some time before The Intercept expands to significant coverage of Russia and Eastern Europe. Extending coverage in the U.S. and West isn’t remotely complete yet.
Bewildering and shocking. I am not a regular Intercept reader but have always held Greenwald and his work in high regard. UNTIL I started paying attention to the situation in Syria, and noticed the lack of reporting vis-a-vis Russia’s destructive role in the conflict, on this paper. I noticed the same pattern on twitter, where not a single Intercept reporter has posted about the recent barbaric attacks in Aleppo and elsewhere. That, in fact, they have been posting pro-Assad propaganda and block anyone who voices such criticism. Very bizarre.
Murtaza Hussain has been posting on that.
Sanctions only work when the regime cares about its people. Assad, North Korea, Taliban… have demonstrated their willingness to kill as many of their own people as they can. So, they don’t really care about sanctions.
The author should go further and clearly stated that Western powers should be inactive.
@bogdan
“Sad.” You wrote that immiseration, including starving children, is “sad.” Then you go on to justify it, even though sanctions are not working to destroy Assad. Did you skip right past this in the article:
Sanctions against Iraq caused the death of half a million children. Madeleine Albright said that that price was “worth it.” Your morality appears to be as reprehensible as hers.
“Your morality appears to be as reprehensible as hers.”
If BDS becomes as successful as you wish. Let’s say 90% of businesses and citizens worldwide decide to boycott Israeli products and services. Have you thought about how many Israeli and Palestinian children would die?
Don’t answer a question you cannot comprehend. Expose your lack of critical thinking by calling me a “Zionist”.
As many as died due to the boycotts of South Africa when it was an apartheid state. Which is to say, virtually none, if any. If anyone in good faith other than you, a troll, asks me to expand on the obvious difference between private boycotts and state-enforced sanctions — that is, if anyone is as much an imbecile as Mani — I will explain further.
And you are a Zionist, as well as a troll. For that reason I will be ignoring you. BDS is irrelevant to the gross — the obscene — immorality displayed by bogdan. But you are a troll, and doing what trolls do. Others will hopefully join me in ignoring you.
“As many as died due to the boycotts of South Africa when it was an apartheid state. ”
The whole point of a boycott is that the people sanction the entity because their governments refuse to sanction the same entity.
If every individual and every businesses decide not to do business with Syria then Syria would effectively be under the same current sanctions even if no governments made it illegal to do business with Syria. That would be exactly the same situation if BDS would succeed in convincing everybody to boycott Israel. As expected, you cannot comprehend the question due to your lack of critical thinking skills.
The boycott against South Africa NEVER reached the level sought by activists. Those activists officially, and openly sought economic sanctions from the UN, the US and other Western countries. Sanctions that would have been similar to the ones placed against Iraq and currently against Syria.
I have demonstrated that you are liar, a crapflooder, a troll, an entertainer, an ignorant. What about your level of crititical thinking skills?
Mani: “Don’t answer a question you cannot comprehend. Expose your lack of critical thinking by calling me a “Zionist”
Mona: “And you are a Zionist, as well as a troll”
Hence my point!
Again, anyone whom I deem to be asking in good faith about anything Mani the Troll raises, I will reply to them. (I’ve visited this subject of consumer/academic/entertainment boycotts vs. state-enforced sanctions and embargoes many times before.) I won’t substantively engage Mani any further here.
Aleppo is besieged by the Assad regime. this is the worst economic sanction one can impose. no matter how booming the economy it is, it does not matter if you are under siege. it is the regime’s army who denied the UN aids to enter Aleppo.
nobody likes sanctions and there are, indeed, many wrong doings (as the article mentioned / especially regarding the aid products, who should not be subjected to sanctions), but saying that a violent regime should be tolerated and suported is just naive and irresponsible. and sad.
what about Russia, Iran and China. Syria has also economic ties with them -maybe even stronger, giving the geographical proximity- and they don’t impose sanctions on it, they actually helping it: so where is the aid for all the people? maybe the regime is keeping it. and the same would have happened without the UE/US sanctions. it is the war and the regime who preferred it to the political transformation who creates the misery, not the attempts to cut the power of such violent regime.
and regarding the sanctions on Iraq, I didn’t even said that they were justified, or that sanctions are good, always justified measures. keep your moralism for yourself.
This ‘article’ (propaganda piece) failed to mention that the black market in Syria is controlled by pro-Assad forces, some of the most robust in the country, who are thriving by exploiting the population. For example, pro-regime forces have levied a tax on all incoming food products in a town just north of Damascus.
And this is hardly a ‘violent’ regime. It is a barbarous, murderous regime which commits war crimes daily against its own people.
you are quoting banalities. a scholar saying something to look like he’s doing something.. ““Aid is now an essential part of the Syrian economy and sanctions give regime cronies in Syria the ability to monopolize access to goods. It makes everyone reliant on the government.”
all wars are doing this, and all wars are depending on aids. and the purpose of a regimental government is to make people depending on it, especially in times of war. without sanctions the regime would have had even more power, and more power and monopol means the ability to make the people more dependend on it.
the regime has also more power because Russia, Iran and China are not applying sanctions, because they are actually important contributors to the Syrian economy.
look at the Nazi regime in interbelic Germani. they had Nazi allies, they invested almost all in the war machine and in systematic repression, ant then all countries around had to do the same.
Look at the Nazi-like regime in Zionist Palestine, their führer had 23 standing ovations in Congress.
How revolting; I’m quoting the reality of the results of the sanctions that are causing unparalleled levels of misery and poverty in Syria. Only a cretin would refer to that as “banalities.” The UN found sanctions are generating a large amount of poverty and misery. And Assad is, if anything, as strong as before they were instituted. If not more so.
And no, I will not be “keeping my moralizing to myself.” When I read obscene sentiments such as yours, I’m going to smack the cretin down. Nearly every time.
Banalities, indeed….
“And no, I will not be “keeping my moralizing to myself.”
You do keep it for yourself when it comes to Israel. Aren’t you the ones calling for sanctions against Israel because of the Israeli’s government treatment of Palestinians?
Why does it bother you that sanctions are placed against Syria because of the regime treatment of its own people?
Do not answer those questions. Call me a Zionists so you can prove your lack of critical thinking skills.
I agree, your malignant zio apartheid terrorist regime in Palestine shouldn’t be sanctioned—it should be bombed into oblivion and burned whole—it’s the only way to be sure.
”
Nah, israel-worshiping ziotard, your lack of critical thinking skills is because you’re a braindead Zionist window licker.
I hope somebody is watching you. You are so upset you might blow up something!
You “hope somebody is watching” me school a noxious little Zionist terrorist on a publicly accessible web page? ROFL…Do you also aim to get gut-punched in bars and “hope somebody is watching you” then too, zio cretin?
Stop projecting, you butthurt Zionist terrorist, and go blow up what’s left of your stupid fucking brain!
no, you are quoting a superficial opinion, which you are taking it as truth, because you are unable or unwanting to see the reality. like the fact that Assad is not ‘as strong as before’. like there is no Russian air force helping him and keeping him there. and now thousand of forein troops send by Iran. because Russia and Iran are willing to support and take part to the crimes of the regime.
‘I’m going to smack the cretin down’
than smack yourself down. you are advocating the participation in the slaughter of many more children and families to avoid their starvation. and you speak about morality.
we are also sanctioning and contributint to the tragedy with our inaction. we prefer to blame than to take action.
the Syrians who protested against the Assad regime proved to us that we are as powerless as they are, and we live in the same non-democratic, regimental world as they do, but we enjoy it. at least they tried to change the world they live in, but all we do is blaming our president/our army, other president/other army, because we are incapable, afraid and too comfortable in our submissive positions to do something to stop the war. we have no power and we don’t want it, because power means responsibility, and we are immature and selfish. we live in non-democratic contries, and we are fine with that. we are powerless and irresponsible citizens of this world, and it is our fault that the war is not over. at least we could stop doing something, stop doing anything until the war is over; stop working and providing for this system who feeds on money, oil, weapons, war and power.
sad, but, firstly, a war in a country with a well working, effective, resourceful economy could be even more destructive and longer than a war in a depleted economy, depending on the scale and the complexity of the situation (and in Syria is both large scale and high complexity).
secondly, the economic resources are controlled and used by the Assad regime to finance his army. the regime is bombing its “own citizens”, civil houses, hospitals and inhabited urban areas in order to protect the lives of its loyal troops. they are the ones who are punishing the ordinary Syrians. you can see the American army bombing villages and cities in the Midle East, but an army bombing its own cities, and inviting also the Russian army to do so, it’s extremely problematic and treacherous and it is happening in Syria. the national interests of Russia in Syria, combined with the dynastic interests of the Assad regime, it is the worst nighmare, disaster and death for the ordinary Syrians.
Thank you TI and Rania Khalek for an article about Syria that isn’t just anti-Shia nonsense.
It’s been a while.
“In 2013 the sanctions were eased but only in opposition areas. Around the same time, the CIA began directly shipping weapons to armed insurgents at a colossal cost”
“Opposition areas” are the ones where foreign dominated militant radicals (proxies for the US and our “allies”) are warring to impose a Saudi style Sunni theocracy on the diverse Syrian population… with the notable exception of the Kurds who are mostly just seeking autonomy.
“Around the same time” (2013) is a generous or misleading statement however, as the covert weapons deliveries to the foreign radicals attacking Syria began at the same time (2011) as the “deadly crackdown on protesters”… which was actually self defense by Syria against the foreign fighters who had infiltrated the protest movement in order to trigger the war. The first deaths recorded were in fact Syrian police shot by the foreign infiltrators from among the protesters.
Now, to be fair, the language used in the article “directly shipping weapons” doesn’t speak to the reality that indirect methods were initially used before the direct deliveries began.
In any case, this article about the horrible consequences, futility, immorality and the false propaganda about the sanctions is still a breath of fresh air.
The proxy and economic war that the US and our “allies” launched against Syria without a declaration of war by Congress is not just illegal and immoral, it is against our interests and our supposed values. The war has grown to now include direct military intervention by US military forces (supposedly to fight IS) at a cost of more than $5 billion per month.
And the fact that the attack on 9/11 is being used as the “legal” justification for our war while al Qaida (indirectly supposedly) and their ideologically identical collaborators (directly) are receiving weapons from us should be triggering screams of bloody murder and treason from all of us, but particularly the Americans affected by 9/11 and Sunni terrorism.
The farce of our establishment presidential “debate” that excludes all mention of the true reality of the war in Syria, and the same farce being perpetuated by our establishment media needs to end.
Shia propaganda? First, Syria is over 70% Sunni. The Alawites are not, in fact, Shia. In truth, there are very few Shias in Syria. So in essence, Assad and the foreign guerrelas operating in Syria in his defense, mainly Iranian, Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and Russians, are slaughtering Sunni Syrians in a country which is majority-Sunni. How and why the civil war began is irrelevant at this point. I happen to be Syrian and I know for a fact that many Syrians were opposed to the Assad regime long before the civil war broke out. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge the war crimes Assad and his foreign supporters are committing against civilians, and the utter and devastating destruction they’ve wrought, is demented. Rania Khaled is a propagandistic opportunist. She’s writing about Syria from a pro-Russian stance. I would love to see Rania travel to Aleppo and report from there on the situation. I suspect her tone would change dramatically if she were to undertake such a journey. This publication is garbage.
What could be more inhumane than imposing sanctions on a country that is facing economic and humanitarian catastrophe?
Pretending that it is someone else’s fault? Insisting that ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ not be used to describe the situation deliberately created and maintained by an antidemocratic regime that is your ally? Calling that regime a democracy rather than the correct term for the crime against humanity that its refusal to recognize the residency and voting rights of the majority ethnic group amongst the legal population of the ‘state’ in question so that it can pretend that a minority ethnic group makes up the majority (hint, that is the actual definition of a long A word)
Are you describing the United States?
I think it is the Jewish sectarian state that fits parameters of his description.
It applies to the Kingdom also.
Syrian election had overseers from a half-dozen countries, including Canada and Australia if memory serves. A 2013 NATO study conceded that Assad’s approval rating was 70%, and if he had ever truly lost the support of the majority of Syrians, he would have fallen.
If Assad had that kind of support he wouldn’t have to of run against two handpicked opponents. Tried to find the NATO study but all the citations link to the same page which does not exist.
The fairness of voting in Syrian election is good – international observers supports this.
Now let’s look at our great mate the Saudis. What is your view on this open sharia law democracy?
There are a few keys within this article.
#1. These sanctions (economic attacks) have been imposed on Syria
since December 1979. That is clearly because of the revolution in
Iran wherein the Iranians threw off the tyranny which had been imposed
upon them since 1953 by the imperialist U$A. It is because Syria
is not the primary target. The attacks on Syria are the means chosen
whereby Iran can be crushed back into servitude. The fall of Syria
will have some economic gains for the empire, but those are not the
main goal of the assaults.
#2. The designation of some states as terrorist sponsors is distinctly
NOT applied to those which promote Sunni terror.
#3. The article mentions ISIS and al Qaeda, but fails to mention
how the states allied against Syria and Iran have enabled those
predators to become more menacing.
The author gives the impression that all of this predatory corruption
is primarily about the government of Syrian.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
p.s.
It is not that the faking USA prefers one version of Islam over another,
it is simply advantageous at this time to have Sunni-related terrorists
in order to increase the military power for capitalist predators.
Once the Shiite-related “terrorist” states are crushed, then the empire
can crush more states and people for the economic advantage of
their elite minority of capitalist predators.
The event that actually solidified the alliance between Syria and Iran happened in July 1979, when Saddam shunted al Bakr aside and seized the presidency as well as all of the other top posts in the Iraqi govt for himself. His first act was to execute all of the pro-Syria leaders of the Iraqi Ba’th. His second act was to forward a copy of the video tape of the denunciations and arrest of the unfortunate ideologues to the CIA. Saddam’s immediate motive for these actions was to prevent the pending unification of Iraq and Syria, which would have put him under control of the very cagey Hafez Asad as well as Bakr. Syria was engaged in a deadly conflict in Lebanon against Israeli incursions and invasions in support of the Israeli and CIA proxies.
What happened to Iraq and what Syria has and is facing seems to be very closely following the script that was first made widely available when Professor Shahak translated the 1982 Yinon plan to promote the rising tide of Islamism in order to further partition Israel’s Arab neighbors along sectarian lines. In the 1990s individuals associated with PNAC published the “Clean Break” plan and Wurmser’s very explicit “Coping with Crumbling States” imperialist screed which are simply updates of Oded Yinon’s ideas. If you have studied those documents, you will have noted that Iran does not figure much as a target, but rather as a potentially useful ally in the destruction of Iraq.
It’s a big overstatement to say that this breathtakingly illegal and vicious proxy war on Syria has nothing to do with Syria – to give it its proper name – the Syrian Arab Republic.
What happened to
Your response is a peculiar mix of selective bits and misrepresentation.
Some of your misrepresentation is somewhat understandable, but
NOWHERE did I say that the war in Syria had
“nothing to do with Syria.”
The wars in the Middle East in the recent decades are “primarily”
about economic domination of resources. Sure, there are
religious schemers who would love to see Islamic chaos, but the
real religion underlying all of the hostilities is the religion of the
worship of accumulating privatized money and power above all else.
The determination of whether any state is to be crushed by the
capitalists empire relates directly to who has control of
and who most benefits from the resources.
These are business transactions to the controllers of NATO
and the faking U$A. It is not “primarily” (as I said above) about
Syria and, when the empire starts increasing its aggressiveness
against Iran, it will not be primarily about that state either.
If the perverted Saudi rulers had much sense, they would at
least have a suspicion that their days are also numbered.
For now, their corruption is supported because they and their
associates are helping destroy their own region of the planet and
they are laying the groundwork for their own demise in the
not-so-distant takeover of their resources.
This is all part of a global war of greed and private interests against
those who have been weakened for the kill.
I apologize for slightly overstating your post, but I think that a basic thrust of your first comment is that destroying Syria is j UST a stepping stone to regime change in Iran. Destroying Syria has been on the imperialists agendas since the 1920s. The US negotiates with Iran. The US was only too happy to see the Iranian influence in post-2003 Iraq help the occupiers to destroy the Arab consensus in Iraqi governance and society. Our fearless leaders know that they can’t effect a regime change in the IRI.
In the 70’s Syria invaded Lebanon an installed a pro-Syrian regime; they were forced to leave only in 2005, after the asassination of the Lebanese prime minister. maybe the sanctions have been impose for that reason. the Syrian regime is not as peacefull, democratic or non-imperial as you suppose.
WHERE did I suppose that?
You are ASSuming and ignoring a great deal in your comment.
“The author gives the impression that all of this predatory corruption
is primarily about the government of Syrian.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.”
because you are ignoring that this is primarly about the Syrian government. the Syrian regime is an important and violent player in the Middle East, both internal and external. the popular uprising was the consequence of the one century Assad dynasty politics and governance. US and other interested powers (on both sides) are building their strategies and intervention following those politics.
that is why Assad regime chosed to repress the protests, instead offering and accepting a political transition. it really is primarly about the Syrian government.
Syria never invaded Lebanon. In 1976 the government of Leb asked Syria to send its army to Lebanon to try to stop the civil war. The army of Lebanon had already disintegrated into warring sectarian and political factions by then. The Syrians had virtually completed that task by 1978, when Israel invaded in support of its losing SLA proxy force to reenergize the conflict. The Leg Civil War was started mainly by the actions of the Nazi-inspired Phalangist Party, who happened to be US and Israeli allies.
The Syrians did not invade Lebanon in the 1970s. To be precise, in 1976 the President of Lebanon requested Syria’s help to stop the civil war. The government of Syria is not non-imperial, it is ANTI-imperialist. If you can look at events like the betrayal of the Arab Revolt in the 1920s, the partition of Syria under French colonialism, the CIA coup in Syria in 1948, western support for the sectarian cleansing of Palestine and continued support for the regime that did it, USraeli actions in the Lebanon Civil, USraeli support for BOTH SIDES in the Iran-IraqWar, the destruction of Iraq, the destruction of Libya and many other examples of Western anti-Arab imperialism…and still not be able to see who are the imperialists and who is fighting them, then you are purblind.
military intervention in the internal affairs of a country, based on the demans of one part or another, is invasion. Syria intervention was not a request, but a coalition between the Syrian regime and the Maronites. and this invasion ended in occupation. the very fact that the Syrians refused to leave Lebanon shows that it was not about helping Lebanon.
I’m so happy for the legitimate government of Syria that their brave Russian allies answered the call to defend the country against murderous, barbarous head-choppers.
Thanks, Rania. Great, horrifying, and badly needed report. So happy to see you working with The Intercept.
Sanctions are merely a means of pretending to care about a situation.
It should be clear that the US has little to no concern for the people of Syria, sad to say. Of course, what will happen with the recent shifts in favor of government forces and their allies? If IS and company collapse, the war will be effectively over.
“If IS and company collapse, the war will be effectively over.”
If so, then the US won’t willingly let that happen. One wonders: are any depths of depravity to which the US government won’t sink? But then a look at US history tells us this question was answered long ago.
There are a few, but we are sadly approaching them.
Of course, perhaps this push to end the war is due to fear of a Clinton victory, and her track record in places like Libya and Kosovo.
Yeah you’re right. If only we could all be held up to the standard of barrel bombing, cluster bombing, and using white phosphorous civilians
Elias, you are a pitiable person. You have no standards, nor it seems clear, does your government. The rest of us watch the horrors show that is the US and pray that our children will still have lives to live, and lives worth living. For many it is too late.
Did I not mention I’m Syrian?
Barrel bombing, cluster bombing, and white phosphorous vs. indiscriminate drone bombing, cluster bombing, selling white phosphorous to Saudi Arabia, and depleted uranium, all of which are used on civilians? Your “point” defeats itself.
Yes absolutely those are wrong. But it isn’t Saudi Arabia that is wiping out Aleppo. Don’t get me wrong, in no way is this a defense of the Saudis.
Not to mention that the US used barrel bombs – containing NAPALM – in Vietnam, and white phosphorous in Iraq. As for depleted uranium, the rate of cancers and birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq post 2004 is many times higher than those rates in Hiroshima and Nagasaki ever were.
sadly, the US has no greater concern for the people of Syria, than the actual Syrian, self interest, dynastic regime has.