Christian Solidarity International (CSI) welcomes President Trump’s long-overdue decision, announced on May 14, to lift the crippling broad economic sector sanctions on Syria.
The sanctions, imposed by the United States and its allies in 2011 to hasten the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad dictatorship, have been used as “weapons of mass destruction,” as a Christian leader from Syria commented to CSI.
“For this reason, and at the request of Syrian Christian leaders, CSI has been advocating since 2016 for the U.S. and its allies to remove their broad economic sector sanctions on Syria,” CSI’s International President Dr. John Eibner noted in a statement on the CSI website.
“In pushing millions of Syrians into hunger, illness and destitution, they killed, maimed, and dehumanized civilians of all religious communities and ethnicities just as surely as bombs and bullets throughout the country’s 14-year sectarian war, which pitted jihadist-led opposition forces, including al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, against those of the secular Assad regime,” Eibner said.
However, he warned that six months on from the overthrow of the Assad regime, Syria’s new, jihadist-led government has already been implicated in mass atrocities against religious minorities.
Targeted killings have resulted in the massacre of thousands of Alawites followed by attacks against the Druze. Christians are also increasingly threatened and discriminated against in the “new Syria.”
Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa and many of his lieutenants are still under individual sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the United Nations Security Council, because they are leaders of an al-Qaeda-linked group.
“These individual sanctions against terrorist-designated leaders should not be removed until the perpetrators of the massacres of Alawites and Druzes in Latakia, Tartus, Hama, Homs, Rif Di-mashq, and Suwayda governorates are brought to justice, and the United States can ensure firm guarantees for fundamental human rights and religious freedom,” Eibner said.
He pointed out that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Vice President JD Vance and President Trump had all promised to protect Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities. “Now is the time to fulfill these pledges,” CSI’s International President concluded.
