“Unilateral coercive economic measures hinder Syria’s ability to meet the basic needs of its people and confront the epidemic of the novel coronavirus,” Bashar al-Jaafari said during a videoconference symposium organized by the US coalition “Sanctions Kill” dedicated to discussing the unilateral coercive economic measures and their impact on countries and peoples in facing COVID-19 epidemic.
According to the Syrian diplomat, unilateral coercive measures continue to weaken the capacity of the public and private health sector in Syria by hampering the import of medicines and medical supplies as these measures affect the Syrian banking sector, especially with regard to foreign bank transfers, as well as its impact on the capacity of the main economic sectors to carry out their tasks in the fields of energy, banking, industry, transport, communications and internal and external trade.
Al-Jaafari refuted the recent American allegations about the exemptions and exceptions by the US government that allow the delivery of humanitarian aid and business transactions with Syria to provide medical and food supplies.
“The US exemptions depend on political considerations and the aid only reaches areas under the control of terrorist groups,” he clarified.
Al-Jaafari emphasized that the Syrian Central Bank had not been able to take advantage of frozen Syrian funds abroad for years with the aim of financing the import of materials related to the basic needs of the Syrian people, since international and foreign banks do not respond to the payment orders issued by the bank and the Syrian government received no response to contacts with those banks, either through the bank correspondence system or through diplomatic channels.
“Syria mobilized all of its available human, medical and nutritional resources to the benefit of all Syrians wherever they are to confront the COVID-19 pandemic, but those capabilities will continue to be negatively affected by unilateral coercive measures.” He concluded.
MNA/SANA
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