/ world today news/ The days when the US dictated to the Arab world and the wars designed by Washington to change regimes in the Middle East are over, writes Stephen Sahiuni.
Hundreds of Syrian men, women and children drowned early Wednesday in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Greece after an Egyptian trawler bound for Italy sank. It is being called one of the deadliest migrant ship accidents in the Mediterranean.
About 750 people were crammed into the boat, with women and children below deck, which may be why all 104 survivors were young men. 78 bodies were found 75 kilometers from Kalamata, Greece.
But Greece is also blamed for its side as they watched the ship but did not take steps to stop the ship and disembark the passengers.
The Greeks say they communicated with the ship and it asked to be allowed to continue sailing to Italy. After the engine stops, the passengers panic and their sudden movements cause the ship to capsize and sink.
US and EU sanctions against Syria are to blame. There is no war in Syria. The battlefields have long been silent in Syria, but no recovery or reconstruction is allowed in Syria, as US and EU sanctions prevent any recovery or foreign investment in reconstruction projects.
Infrastructure, hospitals, homes, schools, factories and businesses have been left waiting for sanctions to be lifted on orders for parts and supplies from abroad to begin the long process of rebuilding from the US-NATO regime change attack on Syria that ended of failure.
The Western media lie when they repeatedly tell their Western audiences that a brutal civil war is raging in Syria and people are fleeing in fear of their lives, and this is the cause of the migrant crisis. This is false.
From Aleppo, Damascus, Homs and Latakia, the roads are clear and open, there are no soldiers or checkpoints on the streets, and there are even tourists arriving to visit religious and historical sites.
Western media must convince their audiences that Western foreign policies designed to create despair in Syria are not to blame. It is Western sanctions imposed by democracies that keep Syrians unemployed and without any social safety net, people are forced to risk their lives to feed their families back home.
The small province of Idlib, an olive-growing region in the northwest, is under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group backed by the UN, the US, the EU and Western humanitarian aid, but there are only 3 million civilians there, while the rest of the country holds 15 million.
The people who left Syria on the ships were not from Idlib because all their needs are met there and they even have business opportunities in that area because Turkey, the US and the EU support this population.
On Thursday, the EU hosted a donor conference for Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. $2.1 billion has been promised, but only Syrians living in the terrorist enclave of Idlib or those living in camps in neighboring countries will benefit.
The EU will not send a single euro to Damascus for the 15 million Syrians who are suffering from the sanctions and are considering a trip that could end in drowning.
Syrians embarking on desperate and dangerous sea voyages to Europe are economic migrants. They are fleeing the poverty imposed on them by the US and the EU.
They are looking for income because their previous jobs were taken from them by terrorists who entered from Turkey and dismantled the factory machines and took them to Turkey, where agents close to Turkish President Erdogan rebuilt the factories there and hired Syrian refugees on wages far below the minimum of the Turkish labor unions.
The Syrian economy is collapsing and the currency is devalued. What was worth 100 Syrian pounds (SL) in 2011 is now worth 10,000. 1 dollar was equal to 50 SL and now varies between 8,000 and 9,000 SL.
Because of the sanctions, Syrian traders are prevented from ordering even the most basic goods such as factory materials and construction products. At one point, chemotherapy drugs were impossible to order due to foreign manufacturers’ fear of US sanctions.
Due to US and EU banking sanctions against Syria, merchants are prohibited from sending payments from Syria to businesses abroad. The port of Latakia is idle instead of buzzing with life recovery activity.
Peace talks in Astana will soon be held in Kazakhstan on June 20-21. The deputy foreign ministers of Syria, Iran, Russia and Turkey will discuss plans for normalization between Turkey and Syria, as well as a road map for a political solution to the Syrian crisis.
However, Damascus insists that normalization is not possible while Turkey militarily occupies the area along the northern border. On May 10, the defense ministers of all four countries met in Moscow and were tasked with developing a road map to be discussed at the upcoming meeting.
On June 14, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said that the road map for normalizing relations between Ankara and Damascus is now ready for discussion in Astana.
The Geneva peace process for Syria has met many times but has never been successful. Experts point to the fact that the meetings in Geneva were dictated by the demands of Washington, which aims to keep Syria devastated and unrepaired by US sanctions.
However, Geir Pedersen, the UN’s special envoy for Syria, expressed optimism at the Astana meeting that the US may prevent him from making any progress coming from Astana.
US President Joe Biden was part of the 2011 US attack on Syria organized by President Obama while Biden was Vice President.
When Syria and Turkey were hit by a 7.8 earthquake on February 6, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rushed to deliver humanitarian aid to Damascus for victims in Latakia and Aleppo, the two worst-hit areas in Syria.
The US, EU and other Western aid groups have chosen strictly to send aid to the 3 million under terrorist control in Idlib, bypassing the 15 million Syrians who have never received a single loaf of bread from the US.
On March 10, Saudi Arabia and Iran signed a normalization agreement brokered by China. It was a political earthquake felt throughout the Middle East as the two former enemies joined hands to work for peace and prosperity in the region.
As a result of the newfound cooperation, Saudi Arabia reached out to Syria and a meeting took place that saw the Syrian president back in the Arab League and ambassadorial functions were established between the two countries.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has a Vision 2030 project based on peace and stability in the region, and he has called for an end to foreign interference and instigated proxy wars.
Saudi Arabia has firmly taken the initiative to find a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis and is ready to work with China, Russia and Iran to fulfill its goals.
The days of the US dictating the Arab world and the wars engineered by Washington to change regimes in the Middle East are over. Saudi Arabia is charting a new course and they require smooth sailing over calm waters.
Translation: SM
Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
and for the channel in Telegram:
#sanctions #killing #Syrian #people
