Syrian Sanctions Must Be Lifted!

Schiller Institute round table discussion

SPEAKERS:

Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the Schiller Institute and Chair of Bürgerrechtsbewegung Solidarität (BüSo)

Col. (Ret.) Richard Black, former head of the US Army Criminal Law Division at the Pentagon; former Virginia State Senator

Vanessa Beeley, British activist and writer, expert on Syria

Marwa Osman, needs no introduction. One of the best known Resistance voices from Lebanon.

The West, with all its supposed “values,” is refusing to lift the harsh economic sanctions against Syria. That means that very, very limited aid is reaching the earthquake victims in Syria. Most attempted aid is being blocked. In Türkiye, the death and destruction brought on by the earthquakes has been described as the worst catastrophe in 100 years. Syria, which was hit with the same earthquakes, has millions of people in dire need of immediate help. There is so much which must be built now, to provide shelter and basic human services to these suffering people. How can political figures like German Foreign Minister Baerbock, and in the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, talk about democracy and human rights while refusing to lift the murderous sanctions on Syria?

Blinken has not fired his spokesperson Ned Price, after Price’s horrendous response on Feb. 6 to a journalist. The journalist said, given that the United States still recognizes the Syrian government: “So why not reach out to the Syrian Government?  They are in power. They’re the ones that run these rescue operations or aid operations and so on.  It would be a great gesture. Another gesture would be to sort of the lift the sanctions that have basically suffocated Syria.”

Price answered: “Said, I’m going to resist the temptation to go into your advocacy rather than questioning.  But I will make the point that it would be quite ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government [that is] responsible for much of the suffering that they have endured.”

These “sanctioning” governments have lost all credibility, with their despicable behavior in regard to the victims of the Turkish-Syrian earthquakes.

Everyone who is a decent human being should demand an immediate lifting of the Caesar sanctions on Syria, which has been hit with sanctions from the United States and many other nations, in an escalating manner, for more than 10 years. Even before the earthquakes, that nation has been suffering more than 90% of its people living in poverty as a result of economic, military, and terrorist actions against it, which escalated in 2011. What is happening against Syria is completely unconscionable. It’s the declaration of bankruptcy of the West if they don’t change their behavior: