Fascist SSNP demands punishment for “treason” of Arab Christians over supporting US sanctions against Assad

Feb 17, 2021

Lebanon’s far-right Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) has accused prominent Christian figures from Syria and other Arab nations who jointly signed a letter urging US and French Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron to maintain sanctions against the Assad regime of “treason”, calling for them to face legal punishment over the letter.

In a statement released on Monday (February 15) and published by Lebanese news site Al Nashra TV, the group’s media head, Maan Hamiya, wrote, “The voices inciting states to continue imposing sieges and sanctions on Syria demonstrate their hateful character, especially since the siege affects all of our people in Syria.” (1)

Harshly condemning the letter signed by leading Christians from Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and other nations, which calls on US President Joe Biden and France’s Emmanuel Macron not to lift sanctions on Syria, Hamiya demanded that the signatories of the letter be quickly held accountable by the judicial institutions in their countries, “since the siege imposed on Syria affects Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and all of our nation.”

Hamiya continued, “Those who seek to support the besieging countries to continue to impose their siege, lack any vestige of patriotism, nationalism, morality and care for human rights, not to mention that those who signed the letter do not represent any value, neither political nor moral, for our people, but this act in itself requires severe condemnation, and the signatories should not be left without judicial accountability so that acts of conspiracy and treason do not go unconvicted. "
He further asserted that "every act aimed at fighting our people’s livelihood, economic movement and source of livelihood, is a heinous act and falls within the framework of the starvation war, which is one of the aspects of the dirty terrorist war being waged against Syria and the Syrians."

The SSNP, best known in the West for providing an escort to former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard during her 2017 visit to Syria to meet with Assad, is a far-right Lebanese militia that has brutally crushed anti-Assad protests in Lebanon and sent 8,000 fighters to back Assad and Hezbollah in Syria. It refers to Assad’s opponents as “Jews of the interior” and “an essential arm of the racist Jewish enemy.” (3)
While the US sanctions were carefully calculated to penalize only the Assad regime’s officials and do not affect humanitarian goods, food or other essentials, the regime and its allies have exploited them as a pretext to further punish the people as a means of claiming victimisation. It should also be noted that the Assad regime and its accomplices have deliberately besieged and starved civilians, often fatally, across Syria since 2012 as a means of forcing them to submit and accept regime rule, its allies including Lebanon’s Hezbollah have routinely taken great delight in taunting the people being starved on social media.(2)

In the party's statement, Hamiya expressed his strong condemnation of “these dissonant and spiteful voices, for their owners’ involvement in the starvation war against our people, in pursuit of the interests of colonial countries and hegemonic powers that aim to oppress the peoples.

Hamiya also called for “taking political, cultural and social positions against the handful of instigators [who wish] to continue the siege and sanctions,” reiterating the need to hold them accountable, and “to punish them with the most severe measures permitted by the laws in effect in the countries in which they live, particularly in Lebanon and Syria, especially since they are participants in a moral, legal and human act of treachery that will descend into the depths of high treason. "

(1) https://www.elnashra.com/news/show/1484191
(2) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3391913/Regime-supporters-troll...
(3) https://www.thedailybeast.com/tulsi-gabbards-fascist-escorts-to-syria

Pictured: SSNP rally with the group's banner, modelled on the Nazi swastika