US State Department: The Assad regime uses humanitarian aid shipments entering Syria as a weapon

The US State Department said that the Assad regime is using humanitarian aid shipments to Syria as a weapon, and continues to obstruct humanitarian organizations from providing aid to millions of Syrians facing a growing crisis after a decade of war.

The US State Department added, in a report it submitted to Congress, that the Assad regime seeks to limit humanitarian organizations’ access to the areas it controls, through imposing visa restrictions and other administrative obstacles.

It stated that aid agencies, including those funded by Washington, faced significant obstacles in areas that the Assad regime forces regained control of in 2018, including the Daraa and Quneitra governorates.

The Assad regime is restricting UN agencies from “establishing subsidiary offices” to send aid and supplies to southern Syria, while unexploded ordnance in Deir Ezzor and parts of Hama also made it difficult to deliver aid, according to the report.

In its report, the US administration quoted “Human Rights Watch” and media reports, that the Assad regime has requested humanitarian organizations to participate with local actors who have been granted approvals, with the aim of “ensuring that the humanitarian response is centrally withdrawn through and in the interest of the state apparatus” at the expense of preventing the aid from reaching the population unimpeded, especially in areas retaken by the Assad regime.

A source from a non-governmental organization told the magazine that in some cases “medical equipment was provided to northeast Syria, but it was confiscated in Damascus and was not sent.”