Dramatic photos show the moment an 8-year-old survivor was rescued and reunited with his mother

Syria’s authorities has ramped up its requires the removing of financial US and EU sanctions within the aftermath of Monday’s earthquake.

Aid teams working from government-controlled areas in Syria have pinned the dearth of heavy equipment and medical tools wanted to take away rubble and deal with the injured on the Western sanctions.

The measures had been imposed on Syria to strain the regime right into a political course of that might put an finish to the continued civil battle.

Some context: A lot of the Syrian quake casualties have been reported within the northwest of the nation, predominantly within the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Latakia and Tartus, in keeping with the state information company, SANA.

This area was already struggling to rebuild important infrastructure closely broken by continuous aerial bombardment in the course of the nation’s civil battle, which the UN estimates to have claimed 300,000 lives since 2011.

Half of northwestern Syria’s 4.6 million inhabitants have been compelled out of their houses by the battle, with 1.7 million now residing in tents and refugee camps within the area, in keeping with the UN youngsters’s company, UNICEF.

A number of elements of northwestern Syria, together with Idlib, are nonetheless managed by anti-government rebels.

On Wednesday, the Syrian authorities’s overseas minister, Faisal Mekdad, known as on Europe to ship assist, saying that sanctions shouldn’t be used “as an excuse.”

“Sending assist from Europe doesn’t must endure a bureaucratic course of. Worldwide regulation states that humanitarian assist is just not be not topic to sanctions, so that is no excuse,” Mekdad advised Lebanese outlet Al Mayadeen.

When requested whether or not the regime will enable assist into rebel-controlled territories, the Syrian authorities stated that worldwide assist can be distributed solely by the Syrian authorities. 

“The Syrian state is able to enable assist to enter into all areas, supplied that it doesn’t attain terrorist armed teams,” Mekdad stated.

US State Division spokesperson Ned Worth stated that: “in Syria, we’ve a companion within the type of NGOs on the bottom who’re offering humanitarian assist.”

“These companions, who not like the Syrian regime, are there to assist the folks fairly than brutalize them,” Worth added.

CNN’s Rhea Mogul, Isil Sariyuce, Gul Tuysuz and Jack Man contributed reporting.