MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. The refusal by the collective West to provide aid to Syria in dealing with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake is inhumane, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Friday.
"In the current circumstances, the illegal unilateral sanctions introduced against Syria remain effective and this, to put it mildly, hinders the process of dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake and providing aid to Syrians by other countries and NGOs," she noted. "This directly leads not only to human suffering but also loss of life, and given the scale of the tragedy that occurred in Syria, such behavior by Western countries contradicts the norms of human morality and cannot be excused. This is simply inhumane logic," the diplomat stressed.
She noted that "the collective West ignored the fact that the earthquake, with its epicenter in Turkey, resulted in the deaths of thousands of people and the terrible destruction of Syria itself." "This is not just a manifestation of the politicized approach which the West is guided by in the process of providing humanitarian assistance to those affected in that country. This is something monstrous," the diplomat stated.
"We urge [the West] to immediately reconsider its inhumane position and lift the restrictive measures that are in force against Syria," she said. "Once again, we emphasize the need for urgent international assistance to Damascus in close coordination with the Syrian government while respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country," Zakharova concluded.
A powerful 7.7-magnitude earthquake rocked Turkey’s Kahramanmaras province, located in the country’s southeast, on February 6. The tremors, followed by hundreds of aftershocks, were felt in ten provinces as well as in neighboring countries, including Syria where the Aleppo, Latakia, Tartus and Hama provinces in the country’s west and northwest were the most affected. According to the Syrian Health Ministry, the devastating quake has left over 1,300 people dead in the already war-ravaged Middle Eastern country, with the number of those injured exceeding 2,200.