DAMASCUS, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations human rights expert said here on Thursday that the foreign sanctions imposed on Syria are a collective punishment targeting the livelihoods of the Syrian people.
In a press conference held in the capital Damascus, Idriss Jazairy said the foreign sanctions on Syria have left a destructive impact on the entire economy and the daily livelihood of the people.
He noted that those sanctions are unilateral and linked to the negative outcome of the armed conflict, saying "it's difficult to separate the impact of the unilateral coercive measures from the negative impact of the armed conflict on the society."
The UN expert, who came to Syria recently to investigate the impact of unilateral sanctions on human rights, said the process of how to eliminate or mitigate the negative effects of the sanctions needs time.
"The process, which we are involved in now, needs patience and faith and continuity for overcoming this negative situation that has impacted the majority of the people, who have nothing to do with politics or the international issues and these people are paying the price for something that they have nothing to do with," he said.
Over the past seven years of conflict in Syria, the country was slammed with several rounds of Western sanctions on the Syrian government, which affected several vital sectors in the society, mainly the economic one, which has negatively rebounded on the lives of the Syrians.
The acknowledgment of the UN rights expert is the first of its kind for the foreign sanctions to be condemned during the country's long-standing conflict.
