“Human Rights Watch” warns that the Assad regime is using the Corona vaccine as a weapon of war

“Human Rights Watch” published a report in which it said that the Assad regime has never been shy about withholding health care as a weapon of war against civilians in areas beyond its control, warning that practicing the same games with the Corona vaccine will undermine the global effort to control the outbreak of the epidemic.

The organization stressed the need to support international relief organizations to ensure the widest and most equitable distribution of the Coronavirus vaccine throughout Syria, including the areas outside the control of the Assad regime.

“Those who supply Syria with vaccines should do their utmost to ensure that Corona vaccines reach the most vulnerable, regardless of where they are in the country,” said WHO Syria researcher Sarah Al-Kayyali.

She stressed that the Assad regime bears the primary responsibility for providing health care for all on Syrian soil, noting that the Assad regime has repeatedly withheld food, medicine and vital aid from political opponents and civilians.

And considered that the “failure” of the Security Council “to maintain a system of cross-border aid for northeastern Syria also means that there is no guaranteed channel to distribute the vaccine to the two million people living there.”

The organization stressed the need for non-United Nations organizations to be able to access the humanitarian reserve, at a time when the work of the United Nations in northeastern Syria requires prior permission from the Assad regime, after the closure of three crossings to enter aid across the border since the beginning of last year, and it is still a border crossing.
One is in service in northwestern Syria.

The organization reminded that the Assad regime has often withheld permission or delayed it, prevented some medical and other supplies from reaching areas not under its control, and prevented United Nations agencies from implementing basic projects in those areas, including its refusal to allow UN agencies to establish corona testing laboratories in northeastern Syria.

On January 21, the Minister of Health in the Assad regime stated, “We will not accept that this vaccine will come at the expense of the Syrian sovereignty,” in what the organization considered as an indication that “it is unlikely that the government included the northeast of the country..in its plans.“

According to the organization, the Syrian opposition in northwestern Syria submitted an official request to Kovacs to obtain the vaccine, while arrangements were made to obtain vaccines independently in the areas of influence of the Syrian Democratic Forces.