UN Sanctions Lifted From Syria, But Not From Its People
The drumbeat of 'official' news allows you to believe the UN is finally easing economic strangulation on Syria. DW dutifully reports that sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad have been lifted, implying a path to normalcy. They won't mention that the Caesar Act, unilateral US sanctions designed to cripple the Syrian economy, remains firmly in place, affecting everyday Syrians far more profoundly
than any designation on Assad himself. This 'lift' is a sleight of hand. The Caesar Act, signed into law in 2019, explicitly targets anyone doing business with the Syrian government, ensuring reconstruction is impossible and the refugee crisis festers. One might wonder if official sanctions are simply too inconvenient to maintain when Washington's unipolar vision isn’t being realized. Meanwhile,
the Syrian people continue to pay the price for US foreign policy, one starved family at a time.