Syria: At what point do sanctions become a crime against humanity?

Despite Syria's prolonged isolation and suffering since the civil war began in 2011, recent developments show a surprising turn: The earthquakes of February 2023 appear to have triggered the country's reintegration into the regional political scene. Arab League members, including Saudi Arabia, have taken steps to reintegrate Syria into regional politics and address the humanitarian crisis caused by the earthquakes, which killed approximately 6,000 people and displaced over 330,000.

In an article published on 14 June 2023, Agenzia Fides reported: “In exchange for normalcy and humanitarian aid, the [Assad] government agrees to speed up the reintegration of refugees …, control drug and weapons smuggling, and initiate security reform to disempower rogue militias.” In light of this, regional experts, Vatican officials and local Christian leaders (including Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch Youssef I) are calling for the immediate lifting of sanctions against Syria to enable swift access to essential resources and prevent further suffering.

World Watch Research analyst Henriette Kats comments: “The Economist poses a fitting question in an article dated 11 May 2023: ‘Should governments continue to isolate pariah states long after it is clear that sanctions will not induce political change?’ The boycotting of Syria has indeed achieved little politically: With the support of Russia and Iran, President Assad has remained firmly in power and it is ordinary citizens, including Christians, who have suffered the most from the economic crisis resulting from the sanctions. According to Crux reporting on 26 November 2022, roughly 90% of Syria’s remaining population live below the poverty line and church leaders say it is especially the poorer and weaker segments of society who have suffered most from the international boycott. In a direct response to the earthquakes, the USA decided to grant emergency aid to Syria for 180 days as a humanitarian exception (The Guardian, 10 February 2023). However, the World Evangelical Alliance Geneva Office Director pointed out that many churches had tried to provide aid at the time of the earthquakes, ‘but their immediate efforts were hindered by sanctions, and continue to be hindered despite the partial humanitarian exemptions’ (WEA, 13 March 2023).”

Henriette Kats returns to the Economist’s question: “So should sanctions be continued despite the harm they do to the 90% of civilians living below the poverty line? Or is there not the danger, to use the words of the Middle East Council of Churches (quoted in Agenzia Fides, 14 June 2023), that such sanctions could ‘turn into a crime against humanity’?"