DAMASCUS — Syria's health minister said on Thursday that the Syrian health sector is reeling under pressure from the United States' sanctions, while dozens of nations, including China, have pledged to help.

Hassan al-Ghabbash said the suffering of the Syrian medical sector is not a result of the massive earthquake that hit the country on Monday, but rather the Western sanctions imposed on Syria for 12 years.

Ghabbash stressed that from the first moments of the earthquake, the Syrian Health Ministry's emergency room was mobilized to coordinate the response and send ambulances, mobile clinics, and supply trucks to the most affected provinces.

"We are determined to provide services to Syrian citizens despite all the circumstances and challenges, and the Syrian state has largely succeeded," he said.

Ghabbash added that the shortfall caused by Western sanctions would be made up through the concerted efforts of private sector institutions, trade unions, nongovernmental organizations and civil society.

Assistance in need

The minister called on the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations to provide assistance to Syria to deal with the disaster.

A decade of civil war in Syria has already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.

Top aid officials were planning to visit affected areas with World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths both announcing trips.

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, traveled to strife-torn Aleppo, Syria.

"Communities struggling after years of fierce fighting are now crippled by the earthquake," Spoljaric said on social media.

"As this tragic event unfolds, people's desperate plight must be addressed."

On Thursday, a plane carrying rescuers with the Red Cross Society of China and its first batch of quake relief aid arrived in Syria's capital Damascus.

Xinhua—Agencies