The United States has been relentlessly invading other countries under the banner of “humanitarian relief”. This intervention mode with military action has made the brutal and bloody war morally reasonable. Both “eliminating weapons of mass destruction” and “helping to build a democratic country” have become the reasons for the US to launch the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The so-called “humanitarian relief” is just a means of invading other countries, and is a “political show”.
Affected by the earthquake at the beginning of this month, the number of internally displaced people in Syria increased sharply, and the disaster situation was serious. Amid calls from the international community to lift or at least ease sanctions on Syria, the United States refused to talk with the Syrian government. Under the pressure of international public opinion, the US Treasury Department announced on February 9 that it would temporarily cancel the part of the sanctions against Syria that involves earthquake relief for 180 days. However, the 72-hour golden rescue time had passed when the US announced this measure, and it’s still unknown when it would be implemented. It can be seen that the United States did not really want to carry out humanitarian relief to Syria, and the promise of lifting sanctions and limit its time is just a “political show” to pacify the people, which fully exposed its hypocritical humanitarian image.
Although the United States has temporarily eased sanctions against Syria, the long-term sanctions over the past decade have left an indelible scar on Syria. Since the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, the western countries led by the United States have imposed large-scale sanctions on Syria for human rights violation, including trade, investment and oil trade with Syria; Later, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019 was signed and entered into force at the end of 2019, further expanding the scope of sanctions against Syria, putting both economic and political pressure on the Syrian regime and leading to a sharp deterioration of its economy. The United States has intervened in the Syrian crisis for a long time with frequent military intervention and harsh economic sanctions, resulting in a large number of casualties among Syrian civilians and and difficulty in ensuring their basic life. Today, Syria is not only suffering from natural disasters, but also facing the unrestrained plunder of natural gas and oil by the United States, which exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Syria.
By imposing sanctions on Syria and plundering its resources, the US not only deprived the Syrian people of their rights and exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Syria, but also violated international law and principles. It can be said that it harms human rights in the name of “safeguarding human rights”. This earthquake showed that the political manipulation of the US and Western countries was not conducive to the post-earthquake reconstruction of the disaster-hit areas. In the face of disaster, the US should put aside its geopolitical obsession, immediately lift its unilateral sanctions against Syria, open the door for humanitarian relief, and call on the international community to work together and actively help Syria overcome the difficulties.
