Nearly six months ago, after a devastating earthquake that killed more than seven thousand people and left $5.1 billion worth of damage in Syria, the Biden administration did the bare minimum decent thing and issued an exemption for the more-than-decade-long US sanctions on the country. The sanctions had already made life for ordinary Syrians brutal and borderline unlivable at what might charitably be called the best of times, so you could only imagine the kind of deadly mayhem they would have caused in the middle of this disaster.

Half a year on, how is it going? The verdict is mixed, according to a report put out earlier this month by the Carter Center, the human rights organization founded by former president Jimmy Carter.

Based on conversations with a dozen figures from the United Nations, NGOs, banks, and other entities involved in post-earthquake efforts, the report makes clear that while the exemptions have helped, numerous obstacles to humanitarian work in the country remain as a result of the sanctions, writes the report’s author, Dr Erica Moret of the Swiss Centre for International Policy Engagement.