Explained | Why is it difficult to send aid to earthquake-affected parts of northwestern Syria?

The story so far: The death toll in the devastating earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in the early hours of February 6 rose above 35,000 on Tuesday, with around 31,643 people dead in Turkey and 3,581 dead in Syria.

The 7.8 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes were followed by nearly 200 powerful aftershocks, killing thousands of people, destroying buildings, and trapping survivors under tonnes of rubble. While the world responded swiftly by dispatching rescue teams and relief aid to Turkey, providing the same for Syria has been a challenge.

The epicentre of the first earthquake that struck in the early hours of February 6 was located about 33 km from Gaziantep, a historical city in south-central Turkey. Gaziantep is also around 120 km from Aleppo in Syria, one of the worst-affected areas in the war-torn country.

Understanding political control in Syria

Syria was already ravaged by unending war and a humanitarian crisis when the earthquake worsened their situation.

During the 2011 Arab Spring, rebel groups launched an armed attack against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who took over the post from his father and former President Hafez al-Assad in 2000 after he ruled the country for almost three decades. The rebellion transformed into a civil war, involving terrorist groups like the Islamic State and the Syrian faction of al-Qaeda. Eventually, the civil war led to the world’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Currently, there are multiple powers at play in Syria. Assad’s government, supported by Russia and Iran, controls most of the country. Other forces and Assad’s opposers include the largely KurdishSyrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are active in the northern part of the country and backed by western powers like the U.S. and Germany. Idlib, a province in the northwestern part of the country, is the last rebel stronghold in Syria, currently controlled by al-Qaeda-linked group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

According to the UN, around three million people, most of them internally displaced and fleeing war in other parts of Syria, live in Idlib. Many have been forced to flee their homes multiple times.

Why is it difficult to send aid to northwestern Syria?

The northwestern parts of Syria are also the worst affected by the earthquake. Idlib, already ravaged by war, disease, starvation, and multiple humanitarian crises all at the same time, is also severely damaged by the February 7 earthquake. Most infrastructure in the area is temporary – not adequate to protect people from the biting cold, especially as most permanent buildings were either destroyed during the war or the earthquake. In fact, freezing temperatures in both Turkey and Syria have proven to be a major hindrance in rescue and relief efforts.

Currently, local organisations such as the White Helmets are leading the rescue and relief efforts in the region.

So far, international aid to Idlib and other parts of northwestern Syria could only be sent through the United Nations (UN)-approved Bab al-Hawa crossing on the Turkey-Syria border. However, the crossing was damaged due to the earthquake, blocking relief material from reaching the affected parts of the country. The authorisation forthis crossing also needs to be renewed periodically by the UN Security Council (the latest renewal was adopted on January 9). On February 14, President Assad allowed the opening of two more crossing points at Bab Al-Salam and Al Ra’ee for an initial period of three months, to allow aid to reach the northwestern parts of Syria.

Previously, Russia and China – supporters of the Assad regime in Syria and permanent members of the UN Security Council – vetoed opening more humanitarian routes in Idlib.

Infighting between groups within Syria is an added challenge for aid workers. An aid convoy from Kurdish-led SDF to an area held by rebel factions was not allowed to cross over and reach those in need on Thursday, news agency Reuters reported.

Concerns over aid through Syrian government

Another challenge for relief efforts was the Syrian government’s reluctance to provide relief workers direct access to affected areas, and its insistence that all assistance must be done in coordination with Damascus and not through the Turkish border.

The U.S., however, has not been in favour of providing aid to Syrians through channels regulated by the Assad government. “This is a regime that has never shown any inclination to put the welfare, the well-being, the interests of its people first,” U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said, outlining why the U.S. government was not reaching out to Assad’s office to coordinate relief efforts.

Fears of the weaponisation of aid in Syria are not new— the Syrian Association for Citizens’ Dignity (SACD), which describes itself as a civil rights grassroots popular movement, says the weaponisation of humanitarian aid reaching Syria is “well-documented”. A report published by SACD in November 2021 noted that Assad’s regime interferes in the work of organisations by determining who benefits from their work and by redirecting help and other benefits to military and security agencies and personnel. Refusing direct or indirect instructions from the Assad government may result in consequences such as “revoking an organisation’s permits to cancelling projects or losing jobs”.

During the most ferocious years of fighting in Syria, government offers were often “surrender or starve” tactics and cut off entire communities believed to be supporting rivals, BBC noted.

Concerns about manipulation of aid by the Assad regime will keep critical supplies like recovery machinery and fuel under-supplied in Syria, the European Council on Foreign Relations said.

Russia’s closeness to the Assad regime is also a concern for countries, especially the Western powers, given the Ukraine invasion that started almost a year ago.

International sanctions on Syria

On February 7, Khaled Hboubati, head of the non-profit organisation Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC), appealed to western countries to lift their sanctions on Syria to aid relief work. “We need heavy equipment, ambulances and firefighting vehicles to continue to rescue and remove the rubble, and this entails lifting sanctions on Syria as soon as possible,” he was quoted as saying by Syria’s Sana news agency.

On Friday, the U.S. announced a 180-day relaxation period on the sanctions imposed on Syria to aid relief work in the earthquake-affected country, The Guardian reported.

The U.S. designated Syria as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1979, with more sanctions placed on the country over the years. However, the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act of 2019, which came into force in 2020, was one of the most forceful sets of guidelines, aimed at punishing financial and political supporters of President Assad.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has now issued Syria a General License (GL) 23, which authorises all transactions related to earthquake relief that would be otherwise prohibited by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations (SySR). The licence is valid for 180 days.

European Union’s (EU) current sanctions against Syria were introduced in 2011 and renewed last year, until June 1, 2023. These include “a ban on the import of oil, restrictions on certain investments, a freeze of the assets of the Syrian Central Bank held in the EU, and export restrictions on equipment and technology that might be used for internal repression, as well as on equipment and technology for the monitoring or interception of internet or telephone communications”. There is no confirmation yet if the EU will relax its sanctions against Syria.

Other countries that have placed sanctions against Syria include Australia and Canada.