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Syria

US Sanctions Are Starving Syria

August 25, 2020 Aaron Maté , The Grayzone Project. , , ,
In June, the US imposed its harshest sanctions on Syria to date, prompting the World Food Programme to warn of “mass starvation or another mass exodus.” The US sanctions law known as the Caesar Act openly states that its strategy is to prevent reconstruction in government-held areas where most Syrians live, in which the Syrian government now controls after defeating a decade-long, devastating proxy war waged by the US and its allies. In a new article for Foreign Affairs, scholar Joshua Landis and former Obama administration official Steve Simon write that the current US sanctions policy, quote, “further immiserates the Syrian people, blocks reconstruction efforts, and strangles the economy that sustains a desperate population during Syria’s growing humanitarian and public health crises.”

On Bombs And Bombings

August 21, 2020 Caitlin Johnstone.   , , , ,
For a full week now the Israeli army has been bombing Gaza, a population that is about to run out of fuel for its only power plant due to a years-long Israeli program of deliberate siege warfare. Yesterday the US ordered an airstrike on Syrian forces, killing one, when they refused to let the illegal occupying force past a checkpoint in northern Syria. In both cases, an arm of the US-centralized empire used wildly disproportionate force against people who stood against a hostile occupation of their own country. In both cases, the more powerful and violent occupiers claimed they were acting in “self-defense”. In both cases dropping explosives from the sky upon human beings barely made the news.

A Company Of Thieves Run By Washington To Steal Syrian Oil

August 12, 2020 By Ruaa al-Jazaeri, SANA. , , ,
Stealing the resources of the Syrian people and plundering their wealth has always been a major goal of the United States in Syria, as it has completed its hostile approach by supporting terrorism there through an agreement between it and Qasad (SDF) militia to pillage the Syrian oil in an aggravated and declared crime that violates the rules of international law. The administration of US President Donald Trump has worked for years on the scheme to plunder the Syrian oil, which was finally embodied in the agreement between Washington and Qasad militia as informed sources revealed to the (CNN) that the agreement grant an American oil company called (Delta Crescent Energy), Which was created to implement the American scheme, broad powers to seize half of the Syrian oil fields and invest in them.

There Is No Political Solution To The Syrian Conflict

August 9, 2020 Steven Sahiounie, Mideast Discourse. , , ,
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, of the Obama administration, created a mantra for the media: “There is no military solution to Syria.”  He said it so many times, he seemed to convince everyone.  However, after 9 years of conflict it appears there is neither a military, nor political solution for Syria. Despite the fact that the Syrian government under President Assad, with help from Russia, has regained 70% of the territory, and all the major cities are calm, still there is no possibility for recovery or reconstruction of hospitals, schools, homes and lives due to the US sanctions.

United States Stealing Syrian Oil

August 4, 2020 By Amberin Zaman, and Joe Snell, Al-Monitor. , , , ,
The Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of Northeast Syria has signed an agreement with an American oil company, well-placed sources with close knowledge of the deal told Al-Monitor. One of the sources said the agreement to market oil in territory controlled by the US-backed entity and to develop and modernize existing fields was inked last week “with the knowledge and encouragement of the White House.” The sources named the company as Delta Crescent Energy LLC, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Delaware. The sources gave no further details about the company but would only say they had been in talks for “a long time” and that it had received an OFAC license to operate in Syria. Oil is a politically radioactive topic, with the central government in Damascus accusing the United States of stealing its oil after Trump declared last year in the wake of Turkey’s October incursion against the SDF that he was keeping some 500 US Special Forces in the Kurdish governed space “for the oil.” Despite steadily tightening sanctions on the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the United States has turned a blind eye to ongoing oil trade between the Kurds and Damascus. A fair amount of the oil is also sold at cut-rate prices to the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

US Sanctions Are Part Of A Multi-Front War On Syria

July 21, 2020 By Eva Bartlett, RT. , , ,
The US is waging multiple fronts of war against Syria, including brutal sanctions while claiming concern over the wellbeing of Syrian civilians – the vast majority of whom are suffering as a direct result of US policies. On June 17, the US implemented the Caesar Act, America’s latest round of draconian sanctions against the Syrian people, to “protect” them, America claims. This, after years of bombing civilians and providing support to anti-government militants, leading to the proliferation of terrorists who kidnap, imprison, torture, maim, and murder the same Syrian civilians.  Just weeks after these barbaric sanctions were enforced, cue American crocodile tears about Syrian suffering, and claims that Moscow and Damascus are allegedly preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid. More hot air from American hypocritical talking heads who don’t actually care about Syrians’ wellbeing.

The Return Of The Anti-Antiwar Left

July 5, 2020 By James W. Carden, Counterpunch. , , ,
In the writings of Dreyfuss, The New York Times’ Michelle Goldberg, Mother Jones’ David Corn, The Atlantic’s Franklin Foer, New York magazine’s resident dolt Jonathan Chait, and many more besides, we can see the emergence of the anti-anti-Cold War Left, there has also reemerged alongside it the very vocal and ravenously unscrupulous anti-antiwar Left. And it is on the issue of the Syrian war on which the anti-antiwar Left has coalesced, inexplicably arguing for the wholesale takeover of a secular police state by the very same Islamist radicals who, if given the chance, would turn around and immediately kill them on the grounds of apostasy. In Syria, the protests that began in 2011 were quickly overtaken by armed jihadists whose motto was “Christians to Beirut, Alawis to the grave.” Before he was murdered by Syrian rebels, the Jesuit missionary Father Frans vans der Lugt observed that “From the start the protest movements were not purely peaceful. From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. Very often the violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.”

Washington Wants 17 Million Syrians Starved Into Submission

July 3, 2020 Stephen Lendman, Global Research. , , ,
Signed into law by Trump last December, the draconian measure that breaches international law became effective on June 17. It has nothing to do with protecting Syrian civilians, everything to do with starving and otherwise immiserating them into submission to Washington’s imperial boot. The measure threatens sanctions on nations, entities and individuals that maintain legitimate economic, financial, military, and intelligence relations with Damascus — their legal right under international law. Syrian envoy to Russia Riyad Haddad explained that threatened US sanctions under the measure “not only target Syria, they directly or indirectly jeopard(e) all its allies and are also aimed against Persian Gulf countries, so that none of these countries dares to invest in” the Syrian Arab Republic.

The Kurds Unbowed

June 28, 2020 By Dilar Dirik, New Internationalist. , , , ,
Despite the odds stacked against it, the women’s movement is determined to continue the struggle. In response to the Turkish invasions, hundreds of thousands of women from the different communities in Northern Syria have taken to the streets. On the International Day against Violence against Women, all the women’s organizations in Northern Syria organized large rallies across the region with the slogan ‘Occupation is Violence’. These local actions were echoed by feminist actions around the world under the campaign ‘Women Defend Rojava’. ‘Day and night, we engage in efforts to struggle against the occupation,’ Evîn says. ‘Our aim is for these areas to be liberated and for our people to see a dignified return. Both things must be led by the organized, free woman.’

Deadly New Sanctions On Syria

June 22, 2020 Judith Bello, United National Antiwar Coalition. , , ,
On May 20, President Trump signed into law the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.   Embedded in this bill, a housekeeping bill of sorts where yearly “defense” appropriations and priorities are spelled out, was the basic text of the 2019 Caesar Syrian Civilian Protection Act.  Perhaps they were buried here because they didn’t have bipartisan support, but there is certainly no reason to think that is the case.  The war on Syria has had bipartisan support for the duration.  Perhaps they were just embarrassed by the title, as the bill is named after a presentation that was a fraud. The Caesar photos, which first emerged in January of 2014,  were claimed to be 55,000 photos of people tortured to death by the Syrian government brought out by a military  defector. 

US Admits It Is To Blame For Syrian Hunger

June 16, 2020 By Steven Sahiounie, MidEast Discourse. , , ,
United States Special Envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, announced on Sunday that Washington had offered Syria a proposal to end the US sanctions. The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry in Damascus said that the statements by James Jeffrey constitute a clear admission by the Trump administration of it being directly responsible for the suffering of Syrians.  The Syrians see the increasing sanctions as economic-warfare after the US failure to bring about ‘regime change’, by using terrorists supported by the CIA. Damascus declares the sanctions violate human rights and international law as they affect the Syrian population. President Trump inherited the Syrian war from its creator, former President Obama.

Special Edition: Sanctioned Countries Speak Out On COVID-19

May 26, 2020 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , , ,
On May 9, 2020, the Sanctions Kill coalition based in the United States held the first in a series of webinars on the United States' illegal economic coercive measures imposed on 39 countries and one-third of the global population. This webinar featured representatives from six countries: Cuba, Zimbabwe, Nicaragua, Syria, Venezuela and Iran. Each of these targeted countries shares common struggles to maintain their sovereignty and provide basic necessities for their people while trying to build new forms of governance in the face of aggression and interference from the United States. It is rare to hear directly from government representatives from targeted countries in the United States and it is important for us to understand what is happening in a way the corporate media will not provide. The second webinar is on Sunday, May 31 at 1:00 pm Eastern.

US Continues Its War On The Rest Of The World

May 19, 2020 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
It isn’t clear who the next president of the United States will be but the terrible handiwork of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump are creating terrible suffering for millions of people around the world.  Donald Trump is making a big show of a phony peace agreement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Taliban were given life by Jimmy Carter, who sought to undermine the sovereign government of that country. We were told that the Soviets had invaded when in fact the government of president Najibullah had invited them, an act he had every right to undertake. What followed was years of civil war, billions of dollars funneled to the mujahadeen, including the likes of Osama bin Laden, who subsequently turned against his sponsors and killed 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001.

US And Iran Making Moves Toward De-escalation

May 16, 2020 By Oraib Al-Rantawi, Middle East Monitor. , , ,
Almost simultaneously, Iran started to withdraw its Revolutionary Guards from Syria — according to Israeli media leaks and western media confirmation — while the US started to withdraw its Patriot missiles from Saudi Arabia, return swarms of its air force jets back to their bases and announce the reduction of its naval presence in the Arabian Sea and Gulf. Iran has not yet acknowledged its sudden move in Syria. However, Washington has said that Tehran no longer constitutes a threat to the security of the United States, Israel or Saudi Arabia; that is the justification for the withdrawal of US forces from the Kingdom. On a related issue, sources say that a prisoner exchange deal between Tehran and Washington is almost ready at last. Ali Rabiei, a spokesman for the Iranian government, has expressed his country’s willingness to conduct a full exchange of prisoners with the United States with no need for any mediation by a third party.

OPCW Insiders Slam ‘Compromised’ New Syria Chemical Weapons Probe

April 30, 2020 OPCW Insiders, The Grayzone. , , ,
We have read the first Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) April 2020 report on alleged chemical attacks at Ltamenah. We observe that, as expected, the IIT has been loyal to its raison d’être. This has gone on for too long now. What makes it worse is the IIT’s narrative has been presented to the world as a product of many peoples’ work. In fact, a number of impartial and principled professionals no longer wish to be associated with the politically motivated reports being issued by the OPCW FFM and now the IIT. Many consider this work and these reports to be procedurally and scientifically flawed. Some of us believe they should not be seen as representing the work of OPCW inspectors at all.
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