Russia will seek further condemnation of the practice of unilateral sanctions, including against Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told RIA Novosti.
The Minister recalled that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres renewed his call for countries that declared unilateral sanctions against a developing country to suspend these sanctions at least for the period of the fight against the pandemic.
"The West remains deaf to these calls, although most of the UN member states supported these calls. We will seek further condemnation of this practice. The UN adopts special resolutions that declare unilateral sanctions illegitimate and illegal, and confirms that only sanctions through the Security Council must be respected – this is the only legal instrument based on international law," Lavrov said.
The Russian Foreign Minister recalled that the so-called "Caesar act" involved the introduction of sanctions that the United States "would like to see as a suffocating tool against the leadership of the Syrian Arab Republic." "These sanctions hit first of all ordinary people, citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic," he stressed.
The Russian Foreign Minister noted that the UN Security Council recently discussed the humanitarian situation in Syria, and Western colleagues said that the sanctions were aimed solely at limiting the capabilities of officials, and ordinary people did not suffer, since sanctions decisions provided for humanitarian exceptions for the delivery of medicines and food. "All this is not true, because there are no deliveries of such products to Syria from those countries that have declared sanctions with alleged sanctions exemptions, perhaps with the exception of some very small batches. Basically, Syria trades with the Russian Federation, with Iran, with China, with some Arab countries," Lavrov said. According to him, the number of countries that understand the need to overcome the current abnormal situation and restore relations with Syria is increasing.
"More and more countries, including the Gulf states, are making decisions to reopen their embassies in the Syrian Arab Republic and more and more countries are realizing that it is already becoming absolutely unacceptable from the point of view of human rights to continue these stifling sanctions," he said.
At the end of 2019, US President Donald Trump signed the law, which became known as "Caesar". It came into force on June 1 and includes sanctions that affect almost all areas of the Syrian economy. The sanctions list was expanded on June 17, and 14 people were restricted, including the wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his sister Bushra, as well as 21 organizations.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said that the United States was trying to deprive the Syrian population of "the last piece of bread", using sanctions as the last weapon to achieve its goals in the SAR. According to him, Damascus has already learned how to counter Washington's sanctions and is taking actions to deal with the consequences of sanctions.
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Photo: MFA