Image / espanol.almayadeen.net

By Roberto Morejón

Although the Syrian government managed to recover most of the territory devastated by the war imposed by armed opposition groups, supported from abroad, it was engaged in a costly and difficult recovery when the two recent earthquakes struck.

 Forces were sent from Damascus to save those trapped under the rubble in a relentless battle against the clock, but the situation is difficult in the northwest, where areas still remain in the hands of the irregulars.

 Both the relief of the regions under government control and the rest require a colossal accumulation of personnel and resources, very limited in the case of the latter.

 The U.S. and European sanctions against Syria have made life in the Levant even more hazardous, and today it is no coincidence that there is a lack of heavy equipment to remove rubble in the areas hit by the earthquakes, where more than six thousand people died.

 The penalties, softened for 180 days by the United States at the request of Damascus, have devastated the Arab country, also shocked by the high number of people displaced by armed conflicts.

 Likewise, Syria presents a very complicated situation in the health infrastructure, a real obstacle when it is urgent to treat the wounded by the earthquakes.

 In view of all this, China, Russia and other governments demanded a definitive end to the siege.

 But, as denounced by the Syrian authorities, the West is making political use of the natural catastrophe, to the extreme of refusing to channel humanitarian aid through Damascus, and to do so through UN agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations.

 At the same time, the West pretends to ignore the plundering by the United States of more than 80 percent of Syria's oil production, extracted from territories occupied by the northern country.

 This continues despite the fact that the effects of the earthquakes have affected the lives of almost 11 million Syrians.

 It is a devastation on top of the previous one, due to the war and the subsequent pandemic caused by Covid-19, said the inhabitants.

 Despite the above, the Syrian government reported the completion of search and rescue operations for survivors. 

 This is an incalculable effort that could have progressed faster if the Syrian conflict were not seen by some from a political prism.