The Earthquake that Hit Syria and Turkey on Monday: The Road Issue to the Peace and Justice in Syria, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations

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Syrian victims of the devastating earthquake that hit their country and Turkey on Monday may become hostages of the politics that have divided Syria for over a decade, analysts have warned.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which struck southern Turkey in the early hours of Monday, was followed by more than 100 aftershocks and a second 7.5 magnitude earthquake. More than 11,000 have been killed across Syria and Turkey, and hundreds more are feared trapped under the rubble.

The situation in Syria is starkly different to Turkey, where 70 countries and 14 international organizations have promptly offered teams of rescuers, donations and aid.

Mai El-Sadany, a human rights lawyer and managing editor of the Tahrir Institute for Middle EAST Policy, says that the Assad regime has swindled aid and blocked aid from reaching non-regime areas. “The international community must urgently find ways to ensure that emergency assistance and support reaches the people of northwest Syria.”

Most Western countries don’t like the Syrian regime. Regional states are welcoming the return of Assad to their fold as he begins forging ties with his former enemies. In the year 2005, the United ArabUAE welcomed Assad and last month the Turkish President said that he could meet Assad for peace talks.

“The US has been involved in the Syrian crisis for a long time,” Mao Ning, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Wednesday. In Syria the frequent military interventions and harsh economic sanctions have made it difficult for people to obtain basic livelihood security, causing massive civilian casualties.

The US, the UK, Israel and Russia are just some of the countries that have provided relief to Turkey following the earthquake.

In the last year, several countries have sent relief to airports controlled by the regime. Saudi Arabia has pledged aid along with China, Canada and other countries.

Millions of people already suffered from extreme poverty and achol disease before the earthquake hit, so aid groups were especially needed in rebel-held areas.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance is exploring all avenues to reach people in need, a spokesman told CNN on Tuesday. There is aid but the road issue is a big challenge right now.

The Syrian regime has called for the sanctions against it to be lifted. Its UN envoy Sabbagh said on Tuesday that planes refused to land at Syrian airports because of American and European sanctions. He said that planes cannot be used for humanitarian assistance because of the sanctions.

In November, a UN-appointed human rights expert called for an immediate lifting of sanctions against Syria because they were making the situation worse.

“It would be quite ironic to reach out to a government that has killed many of its own people over the course of a dozen years now, and is responsible for most of the suffering that they have suffered, if we were to do so,” said a US State Department spokesman.

The regime is making that argument because if they dropped the sanctions, there would be repercussions that would change the situation in a big way.

Saudi Arabian Premier Ulf Kristersson and the Arab-Bahrain Correspondence in the Middle East after the Isfahan Drone Attack

Why it matters: The announcement comes less than 10 days after a drone attack on a military plant in Iran’s central city of Isfahan that US media outlets attributed to Israel . IRNA said the new underground base was one of the country’s most important air force bases, built deep underground, housing fighters equipped with long-range cruise missiles.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday he was ready to restart stalled negotiations over Sweden’s application to join NATO as soon as Turkey was, Reuters reported.

NATO membership applications from Sweden andFinland have been accepted by most of the other members, but Turkey has yet to approve them in a way that is unanimous. Turkey last week said it looks positively on Finland’s application, but does not support Sweden’s, even though the two Nordic neighbors are seeking to join at the same time.

Why it matters: The three nations last year reached an agreement on a way forward, but Ankara suspended talks last month as tensions rose following protests in Stockholm, where a far-right politician burned a copy of the Quran. Turkey goes to elections in May.

Why it matters: The move comes after an apparent thaw in relations. Bahrain’s crown prince spoke with Qatar’s emir in a phone call last month, in a sign the two Gulf states could move towards repairing relations two years after the Arab boycott was lifted. After the summit in Abu Dhabi, the conversation came after the emir of Qatar and the king ofBahrain were in the room.

In January of 2020 the political and economic boycott ofQatar was ended bySaudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt. There have been no bilateral talks between DOHA and MANAMA since then. All but Bahrain restored travel and trade links in 2021.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/08/middleeast/syria-left-behind-earthquake-mime-intl/index.html

The AlMosahf Account: Its Suspensions and How it Became a Counterexample against the Almighty

Before it was taken action against it, the account with more than 13 million followers called AlMosahf had snippets from the Quran.

I do not think that it broke the rules because it quoted from the Holy Quran, said the person who addressed Musk. The suspension of this account must be lifted.

Not all users were upset with the suspension. The account uses incomplete Quranic verse that they say are taken out of context and change the meaning of the text.

The account owner appears to run sister accounts in English, French and German, on which it posts translations of Quranic verses. Another sister account that shows Quranic videos has been campaigning for the original account to be unblocked.

A United Nations aid convoy, made up of six trucks carrying shelter items and Non Food Items (NFI), crossed from Turkey into northwest Syria Thursday through the Bab Al Hawa crossing — the only humanitarian aid corridor between Turkey and rebel-held areas of northern Syria.

There were millions of people living in rebel-held northern Syria who were already suffering from extreme poverty and a cholera outbreak when the earthquake hit. Now many are fending for themselves.

The Delivery of the Earth-Day Quake at a Crossing Between Syria and the United States: Humanitarian Response in Idlib

The delivery ended a three-day period during which no aid arrived – just 300 bodies, according to the administration that controls the only access point between the two countries.

Immediately after the quake, the United Nations said roads to the crossing were blocked, but as of Wednesday they were clear, raising questions as to why it was taking so long for help to arrive.

A top aid official told CNN earlier that efforts to help people in quake-stricken regions of Syria have been “incredibly difficult,” because passage entries along the border were destroyed due to the disaster.

The former merchant Abu Muhammad Sakhour is helping to treat earthquake victims in the city of Idlib, and checking on injured who have been discharged from crowded hospitals.

At the Bab al-Hawa border crossing, protesters hold signs asking why only bodies are being allowed through. The bodies belong to Syrian refugees who sought safety in Turkey and are now being sent back to be buried on home soil.

A doctor from Turkey is living out of a car with his family while he is in contact with colleagues in Syria. He said that the hospitals there have been overrun with bodies and staff are trying to get families to identify them so they are taken away.

However, since 2021, Russia and China have used their veto power to reduce the number of crossings from four to just one – Bab al-Hawa. In January, less than one month before the quake, the UNSC unanimously voted to keep it open, a vote reluctantly backed by China and Russia, whose ambassador said it enabled aid to flow to a Syrian enclave “inundated with terrorists.”

“We don’t need the politics. We do not need the game to be going on. Barnes believes that the international community should focus on keeping the border crossing open. “Because now, we are past the first phase of finding people, and we are heading into the humanitarian phase. basic shelter, food and water are needed for people.

The earthquakes that devastated northern Syria: Humanitarian aid and humanitarian aid trickling in from displaced families to humanitarian aid. The Syrian refugee’s story

Local authorities say 11,000 families in the rebel-held part of Syria are now homeless after the quake. Up to 2,000 deaths have been reported and thousands more injured, according to the United Nations.

An aid worker distributing supplies across cities in northern Syria told CNN on Thursday that homeless people have been sleeping in their cars amid a “very, very difficult,” situation.

“Those who are still alive under the rubble might die from the cold weather,”  Dr. Mostafa Edo, the Country Director for the US-based NGO MedGlobal said.

“He is using the disaster as a ticket to remove sanctions,” said Omar Abu Layla, executive director of Deir Ezzor 24, a research organization that delivers news from Syria’s Deir al-Zour province. We can go to Syria if we want to. Time is critical. We are playing with life and death.”

Humanitarian partners can provide assistance in the aftermath of the earthquakes. The regime has never shown an inclination to put the welfare of its people first.

Syrians don’t know where their next meal is coming from. When we talk about meal, we don’t mean vegetables or meat. it’s about simple bread,” said Moutaz Adham, Oxfam’s country director for Syria.

The crowd is chanting “Allahu akbar.” Volunteers and civil defense groups — themselves earthquake survivors — pull a boy out from the rubble alive in rebel-held northwestern Syria.

A video went viral showing volunteers in the rebel-held territory saving a family from the rubble 40 hours after the earthquake.

The world knows of these rescues because of Karam Kellieh, a resident and photojournalist who lives in the opposition-controlled territory. The region is home to 4 million people who have been displaced by the war. Even before the earthquake, the area was devastated by bombs and poverty. Aid was hampered by politics and the Syrian government.

“Humanitarian aid and international aid haven’t appeared 72 hours after the catastrophic earthquake,” he said, describing the little help that is trickling into the region as a haphazard grassroots effort by individual groups.

“Rescue efforts are being carried out by poorly equipped civil defense groups and civilians are trying to help,” Kelliah said. Everyone is waiting for international rescue and aid so that they can process what’s happened.

“The situation remains grim in north-west Syria where only five percent of reported sites are being covered by search and rescue,” the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report.

People are digging with their own hands in many areas, but the situation is particularly dire in northwestern Syria, where there is little heavy machinery to lift rubble. Power outages have resulted in fuel shortages in hospitals.