Devastating Impact of Economic Sanctions on Syria

The SLPN has been watching the devastating impact of U.S. economic sanctions on the people of Syria. We are working with the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness to determine the best ways to advocate to change these laws. Why and how economic sanctions are enacted by the U.S. (and other governments) is a complex, often confusing topic.

This article by Steven Simon: Course Correction: Preventing State Collapse in Syria, published by the Quincy Institute in August 2020.

In the article, Simon provides further analysis of the weaknesses of the current U.S. sanctions policies, and offered an alternative approach, more firmly rooted in the realities on the ground.

U.S. policy toward Syria deepens the suffering of ordinary Syrians while increasing the potential for a clash between Iran and Israel in Syria and possibly beyond. The U.S. cannot dislodge President Bashar al–Assad, but its policy will increase his reliance on Russia and Iran, whose influence in Syria the U.S. seeks to roll back. If kept in place unaltered, extensive U.S. sanctions on Syria, as well as on states and humanitarian groups seeking to assist its population, will tip the country toward collapse. Assad will still preside over a large swath of Syrian territory, but the rest of the country will be divided among local warlords or foreign countries heedless of the pain inflicted on Syrians under their control. This space will provide new and expanded opportunities to predators, such as ISIS, while radiating violence outside Syrian borders and setting in motion successive waves of refugees Syria’s neighbors are ill-equipped to manage. None of this serves any conceivable U.S. interest.

America’s true interests in Syria are best addressed through pragmatic diplomatic contact with Damascus and its allies. While this strategy has not heretofore received serious consideration, this paper argues that a reverse course of this kind is best calculated to preserve U.S. interest in avoiding the chaotic ramifications of state failure and alleviating suffering engendered by severe sanctions that underpin the U.S. policy of “maximum pressure.”

AN ADDITIONAL ARTICLE article by Joshua Landis and Steven Simon in Syria Comment also provides excellent background and explains U.S. intent and the reality on the ground - the true impact of the sanctions — which is stark.

“The Trump administration designed the sanctions it has now imposed on Syria to make reconstruction impossible. The sanctions target the construction, electricity, and oil sectors, which are essential to getting Syria back on its feet. Although the United States says it is “protecting” Syria’s oil fields in the northeast, it has not given the Syrian government access to repair them, and U.S. sanctions prohibit any firm of any nationality from repairing them—unless the administration wishes to make an exception.

The sanctions even prevent non-U.S. aid organizations from delivering reconstruction assistance.  Humanitarian exemptions are deliberately vague, as are the requirements that the Syrian government would have to meet in order to obtain sanctions relief.

Blocked from reconstructing their country and seeking external assistance, Syrians face “mass starvation or another mass exodus,” according to the World Food Program. In 2011, abject poverty in Syria stood at less than one percent. By 2015, however, abject poverty had risen to 35 percent of the population. In late spring of 2020, Lebanon approached bankruptcy, and Syria’s economy, which has deep and long-standing ties to Lebanon’s economy, began to spin out of control. Food prices have shot up 209 percent in the last year, and medicine is expensive and scarce. The number of food insecure Syrians has climbed from 7.9 million to 9.3 million in just six months, according to the World Food Program.”

The Caesar Act: Reactions from Syria

The “Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act,” the most recent economic sanctions legislation, passed into law in December 2019 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2020. The Act imposes economic sanctions on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for alleged war crimes against the Syrian population. The sanctions target Syrian-operated industries (infrastructure, military, energy production) as well as individuals and businesses who provide funding or assistance to the Syrian government and its military and intelligence agencies.

The economic sanctions imposed by the Act are designed to put maximum pressure on the Assad regime and to punish Assad for crimes against the Syrian population during the 10-year conflict, with the goal of his ouster from power in Syria and an an end to the influence in Syria of Assad’s allies, Russia and Iran. However, analysts have noted that the the new heavy sanctions of the Caesar Act will instead devastate the Syrian economy, ruin any chances of recovery, destroy regional stability, and do nothing but destabilize the entire region. Indeed, this is exactly what is happening, as we have heard from colleagues in the National Evangelical Synod of Syria and Lebanon (NESSL) and ecumenical church leaders.

Catherine Gordon of the Office of Public Witness and Elmarie Parker, regional liaison for Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, co-authorized a Call to Action Against U.S. Sanctions on Syria, published July 10 in Unbound, the PC(USA) journal on Christian social justice. This powerful article describes the sufferings of everyday Syrians brought on by economic sanctions that are crippling a population already made vulnerable by years of war.

This Presbyterian News Service article describes efforts by the faith community to advocate with members of Congress to reduce or eliminate economic sanctions on Syria: Caesar Act Worsens Humanitarian Situation in Syria, July 15, 2020