The United States administration under Donald Trump had defended denial of easing crippling sanctions on Iran following the Covid pandemic as a “maximum pressure” campaign by arguing that the US administration had, “done remarkable work to deny the regime the resources they need to continue to carry out their terror campaign”.

That it was the common Iranian on the street who was suffering and not the regime leaders was lost in the makebelieve bravado of Trumpism.

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Iran was amongst the worst impacted by the pandemic, but in the times of right-wing assertion, groups like United Against Nuclear Iran had shockingly insisted on stopping all medical supplies and humanitarian trade with Iran. Following a global outcry, Trump condescended and said that he was willing supply materials like ventilators, “if they ask for it”!

It is for these reasons that public emotions in the Middle Eastern regions are completely disconnected with the United States when it conveniently forgets that it was Washington DC which had wrongly reinforced sanctions against Iran (against the beliefs of global watchdog agency IAEA) or had played a devious role in the ouster of the popular Iranian nationalist, Mossadegh, in a CIA-supported coup. But for the likes of a Trump, even giving humanitarian aid is an opportunity to bargain for political brownie points.

Disasters like earthquakes, famines, floods etc., are not the time to pursue political oneupmanship, but that is often the case. The recent Kahramanmaras earthquake in the Turkey-Syria region is believed to have killed over 30,000 and rendered half a million roofless.

Aid for Turkey was more forthcoming, with at least 105 countries and 16 international organisations pledging support. However, the fate of the already beleaguered Syrians living next door in war-torn times is more precarious, with concerns about the Syrian regime playing on the minds of many donor nations.

Realistically, even though Turkish President Recep Erdogan has been railing against the ‘West’, the fact that it remains a NATO member (despite Erdogan) and the ‘West’ has multiple strategic interests therein ensures an empathetic traction despite Erdogan’s own antipathy and boorishness. With little or no similar engagement or interests in Syria, the picture of support is decidedly cold for the Syrian case.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad slammed the ‘West’ by saying that they, “have no regard for the human condition”. Syria’s face to the outside world, Bouthaina Shaaban lamented, “We don’t have enough bulldozers, we do not have enough cranes, we do not have enough oil due to European and American sanctions”.

The conflation of the perception of the regime (as also strategic interests) with the decision to support (or not) the suffering masses in either of the countries, plays out again. As is the case too often, even in painful times like now, politics triumphs over humanity.

India has supported both Turkey and Syria with rescue teams, materials, and aid, though the deeply partisan social media had erupted with snide reminders of Erdogan’s pro-Pakistani stance to rub in the point of India’s ‘greatness’.

The point that India was and will always remain ‘great’ was lost on the polarised netizens who even chose a tragedy to assert their partisan spiel. India’s generous and immediate action was also contextualised to Pakistan’s relatively feeble support towards disaster relief (especially given the official Islamabad-Ankara bonhomie in recent times).

Many influential media channels were relaying the news that Pakistan had denied airspace to Indian Air Force aircraft carrying relief material and personnel to prevent India from sending humanitarian aid; the news was both false and unnecessary. Many thought it prudent to twist and connect many unrelated dots to stitch an unrequired line. Also, the fact that Recep Erdogan may be the President but does not have to represent the thinking and sensibilities of every Turk was also missed. Erdogan is not Turkey, just as Trump was not every American or the intransigent Ayatollahs are not representative of each Iranian.

It is also a fact that areas that are bereft of strategic resources like oil, hydrocarbons e.g., Yemen (where another ensuing humanitarian disaster of unimaginable magnitude has been ensuing for months) or Syria (with discomforting regimes) never really make it to Western headlines ~ they have to endure lack of global support as a matter of routine.

The US State Department’s incredulous logic of equating the regime to the person on the street came up again as its spokesperson said, “it would be quite ironic ~ if not even counterproductive ~ for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people over the course of a dozen years now ~ gassing them, slaughtering them, being responsible for much of the suffering that they have endured”.

While it is certainly true that many illiberal regimes in the Middle East region lack popular support (certainly Syria) it is equally true that an equal if not larger distrust is afforded on the ‘West’ and in particular on the United States for their strangely inhumane coldness in trying times and for having a very selective and convenient memory.

In an almost perverse sense, tragedies like these are also moments to bridge societal and political divides.

The Syrian swath is like a chessboard of patchy areas controlled by the government, the Kurdish SDF forces, and many other Islamists anti-government rebel groups, and for aid to reach all quarters, each group has to coordinate, allow access and facilitate movement, offering a temporary period for rapprochement and engagement.

Erdogan himself had to accept support from countries like Israel (though they later pulled out owing to security risks), which willy-nilly rubbishes Erdogan’s divisive rightwing rhetoric that sustains his popularity.

Tragedies like these are great levelers and they expose the crony capitalism that was fueling Erdogan’s campaign via the construction boom that came a cropper in this earthquake with news of regime-patronized businessmen, substandard materials, and corruption, all conveniently overlooked. But time, tide and even public perception cannot be suppressed as done by the likes of Erdogan, Assad, Ayatollahs or even Trump, as invariably each faces the inevitable consequences of their actions and inactions.

For now, all efforts must go towards ensuring that each sufferer of this terrible calamity is reached out to and allayed with necessary wherewithal, and that politics, at least by the outside world, must wait for some other time. Right now, humanity demands supporting Turkey and Syria wholeheartedly.

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), and former Lt Governor of Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Puducherry)