Live Radio
This aerial view shows residents, aided by heavy equipment, searching for victims and survivors amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in the village of Besnia near the town of Harim, in Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province on the border with Turkey, on February 6, 2023. OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
This aerial view shows residents, aided by heavy equipment, searching for victims and survivors amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings following an earthquake in the village of Besnia near the town of Harim, in Syria's rebel-held northwestern Idlib province on the border with Turkey, on February 6, 2023.
OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty ImagesSyria is buckling under the stresses caused by civil war, a brutal dictatorship, punishing international sanctions, and most recently the devastation caused by earthquakes in the region last February.
At the same time, the effectiveness of sanctions meant to hurt and isolate the regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad is being questioned. Recently, a group of former U.S. officials and Syria experts urged President Biden to rethink U.S. policy and make sanctions more effective.
NPR's Aya Batrawy traveled to a government-controlled area of Syria to learn more about what life under sanctions is like there.
Email us at
This episode was produced by Erika Ryan with engineering from Ted Mebane. It was edited by Larry Kaplow and William Troop. Our executive producer is Sami Yenigun.
