US blocks relief work in quake-stricken Syria, exacerbating crisis

(Cartoon by Ma Hongliang)

A series of devastating earthquakes struck south Türkiye near the border with Syria on Feb. 6, 2023, resulting in mass casualties. Some 26 million people in both countries needed humanitarian assistance, said an official from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Feb. 14.

Years of wars, chaos and sanctions imposed by the US have blighted Syria, and the earthquakes have worsened the humanitarian crisis there. After Syria was struck by the earthquakes, the US refused to lift its sanctions on Syria, hampering assistance efforts. The US did not announce its temporary lifting of sanctions until Feb. 9, when the 72-hour window for rescue had closed. Now crisis has been heaped upon crisis in Syria, causing enormous suffering for its people.

In its pursuit of hegemony, the US caused the Syrian crisis by resorting to military interventions, unilateral blockade and sanctions, and plundering of Syrian resources for a long time. The US and many other Western countries put politicizing the disaster above saving lives and blocked relief work.

"You can imagine that ambulances do not even have fuel to carry the wounded, and at this time the United States is stealing our gas and oil to sell them to third countries,” said Bashar Al-Jaafari, Syrian Ambassador to Russia.