The President January 21, 2021
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Mr. President,
We extend to you our congratulations upon your inauguration as the 46th President of the United
States.
We wish to lose no time approaching you for an urgent response to the severe humanitarian crisis
in Syria. The UN Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures, Prof. Alena Douhan,
appealed at the end of December for the United States to lift its complex web of economic
sanctions that severely harm the people of Syria.
The Special Rapporteur stated that that these U.S. sanctions “violate the human rights of the
Syrian people” and “exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in Syria, especially in the
course of COVID-19 pandemic”, by blocking the aid, trade and investment necessary for Syria’s
health system and economy to function.
The Special Rapporteur’s findings reflect a growing consensus in the humanitarian aid and human
rights communities that this form of collective punishment of the civilian population is driving
Syria into an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.
Ten years ago, Syria was a breadbasket for the region. Today it is on the verge of not just hunger,
but of starvation, according to the World Food Program (WFP). Last June, the WFP’s Director,
former Governor David Beasley, warned that half of all Syrians were going to bed hungry, and
that the country was on the brink of “mass starvation.” Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic is
raging through the country, unhindered by a healthcare system largely destroyed over ten years of
war.
Millions of hard-pressed Syrians will go to bed hungry and cold tonight. Unilateral coercive
measures imposed by the United States make the economic plight of the Syrian people worse.
We urge you, Mr. President, to help Syrians to alleviate a humanitarian crisis that threatens to
trigger a new wave of instability in the Middle East and beyond by implementing the UN Special
Rapporteur’s recommendation.
We believe that the legitimate national interests of the United States can be pursued without
collectively punishing the people of Syria by means of economic sanctions.
Respectfully,
Prof. Dr. Michel Abs, Secretary-General,
Middle East Council of Churches
His Beatitude, Joseph Absi, Melkite Greek
Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and of All the
East, of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
Abdelmadjid Ait Saadi, Chairman,
International Cultural Activities, Algiers
Baron (John) Alderdice, former Speaker,
Northern Ireland Assembly, Director, the
Centre for the Resolution of Intractable
Conflict, Oxford
Baron (David) Alton of Liverpool, KCSG,
KCMCO, Vice-Chair APPG for International
Freedom of Religion or Belief
Dr. med. Nabil Antaki, Blue Marists of Aleppo
His Holiness, Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, Syriac
Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
Most Revd. Joseph Arnaoutian, Bishop,
Armenian Catholic Diocese of Damascus
Revd. Dr. Andrew Ashdown, Humanitarian
Aid Relief Trust, (HART), London
Most Revd. Antoine Audo, SJ, Chaldean
Catholic Bishop of Syria
Karine Bailly, President,
Solidarité Chrétiens d’Orient
The Hon. Gérard Bapt, former Deputy,
National Assembly, Republic of France
Prof. Dr. Adel Ben Youssef, University
of Nice Sophia-Antipolis
Benjamin Blanchard, General Director,
SOS Chrétiens d’Orient, Paris
Ivana Borsotto, President, Federazione
Organismi Cristiani Servizio Internazionale
Volontario
José Bustani, former Ambassador & former
Director, Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons
Rt. Revd. (George) Lord Carey,
former Archbishop of Canterbury
Dr Anas Chebib, President, Collectif pour la
Syrie & France-Near East Association
Dr. med. Selma Cherif, Vice Présidente
de l’ATLMST- SIDA, Tunisia
Norbert Clasen, Publicist, Germany
Rt. Revd. Christopher Cocksworth,
Bishop of Coventry
Pierre le Corf, Humanitarian Aid Worker,
Aleppo
Baron (Patrick) Cormack of Enville
Baroness (Caroline) Cox of Queensbury,
Founder, Humanitarian Aid and Relief Trust
(HART)
The Hon. Pierre Cuipers, Senator, Republic of
France
General Francis Richard Baron Dannatt,
GCB, CBC, MC, DL
Dr. med. Maher Daoud, President,
French-Syrian Medical Association
Didier Destremau, former French Ambassador
& President, France-Syria Friendship
Association
Brig. General (ret) Grégoire Diamantidis,
Air Force of the Republic of France
Dr. John Eibner, International President,
Christian Solidarity International (CSI)
François Ernenwein, President,
Confrontations (Association of Christian
Intellectuals), France
Jorge M. Dias Ferreira, Main Representative of
New Humanity to the United Nations
Dr. Vilmos Fischl, Secretary-General,
Ecumenical Council of Churches of Hungary
Revd. Fr. Peter Fuchs, Director, CSI-Germany
Revd. Hans-Martin Gloël, Evangelical Church
of Germany (EKD)
Dr. Joy Gordon, Ignacio Ellacuria, S.J. Chair
in Social Ethics, Loyola University-Chicago
Mezri Haddad, former Ambassador,
Republic of Tunisia
Dr. Salem El-Hamid, President,
German-Syrian Society
Prof. Dr. Franz Hamburger, Johannes
Gutenberg-University, Mainz
Most Revd. Dr. Gregor Maria Hanke, OSB,
Bishop, Diocese of Eichstätt
Revd. Ernst Herbert, Ecumenical Committee
for Religious Liberty, Germany
Fr. Ziad Hillal, SJ
Hellmut Hoffmann, former Ambassador,
Federal Republic of Germany
Col. Jacques Hogard, Officer of the Legion
of Honor & President, EPEE, Paris
Major General (ret.) John Taylor Holmes,
DSO, OBE, MC, former Director of Special
Forces, British Army
Most Revd. Vitus Huonder,
former Bishop of Chur
Dr. Erica Hunter, Senior Lecturer, SOAS,
University of London
Lord (Raymond) Hylton of Hylton,
ARICS, DL
Most Revd. Jean-Clement Jeanbart,
Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo
Professor Emeritus, Edmond Jouve,
University of Paris
Baron (Frank) Judd, former Minister for
Overseas Development
The Hon. Christianne Kammerman,
former Senator, Republic of France
Mohamed Karboul, former Ambassador,
Tunisia
Dr. Sabine Kebir, weltnetz.tv, Berlin
Dr. Ridha Kechrid, former Minister of Health &
former Ambassador, Republic of Tunisia
Dr Makram Khoury-Machool, Director,
European Center for the Study of Extremism,
Cambridge
Fr. Benedict Kiely, Founder, Nasorean.org
Most Revd. Fülöp Kocsis, Archbishop,
Greek Catholic Diocese of Hajdudorog
Paul Kurt, Chairman, International Society of
Oriental Christians (IGOC)
Prof. Joshua Landis, Director of Center for
Middle East Studies, University of Oklahoma
Rt. Revd. Michael Langrish, former Bishop of
Exeter
Revd. Fr Hervé Legrand, OP, Vice-President,
Confrontations (Association of French
Christian Intellectuals)
Prof. Dr. med. Karl Lehner, Rosenheim
Daniel Lillis, MA, KHS, Director, Lillis
International Government Relations
Consultancy, London
Ricardo Loy Madera, Secretary General,
Manos Unidas, Madrid
Ahmed Manai, President, Tunisian Institute
for International Relations
Mouna Mansour, President, Coeurs sans
Frontières
The Hon. Thierry Mariani, Member of
European Parliament
The Hon. Philippe Marini, Mayor of
Compiègne & former Senator, France
Kenneth Charles McDonald, President,
Marist International Solidarity Foundation
(FMSI)
Charles de Meyer, President of SOS Chretiens
d’Orient
Clemens Count von Mirbach-Harff, Secretary-
General, Malteser International
Rt. Revd. Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of
Rochester, President, Oxford Centre for
Training and Research Development (OXTRAD)
Revd. Ibrahim Nseir, Presbyterian Church,
Aleppo
Peter Oborne, Journalist and Broadcaster,
London
Clara Pardo, President of Manos Unidas,
Madrid
Françoise Parmentier, President, Actenscène,
Paris
Revd. Albert Pataky, President, Pentecostal
Church of Hungary
Very Revd. Mario Alexis Portella, J.D., J.C.D.,
Chancellor, Archdiocese of Florence
Revd. Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, OP, former
Master of the Order of Preachers
Michel Raimbaud, former Ambassador,
Republic of France
General David John Baron Ramsbotham,
GCB, CBE
Col. François Richard, Founder and Chairman,
CPP, Ar-Bed Conseil
Dr. med. Antoine Salloum, President,
Soins Pour Tous, Paris
Most Revd. Dr. Athanasius Schneider,
Auxiliary Bishop of Astana
Revd. Prof. Dr. Michael Schneider, SJ,
St. Georgen-College, Frankfurt am Main
Prof. Dr. Hans Otto Seitschek,
Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich
Revd. Haroutune Selimian, President,
Armenian Evangelical Church in Syria
Most Revd. András Veres, Bishop of Győr,
President of the Hungarian Bishop’s
Conference
Prof. Dr. Michel Veuthey, Associate Professor
of International law, Webster University,
Geneva
Dr. Audrey Wells, Hon Research Associate,
Royal Hollow College, University of London
Admiral (ret.) Alan William Baron West of
Spithead, GCB, DSC, PC, former First Sea Lord
and Chief of Naval Staff, Royal Navy
Rt. Revd. Dr. (Rowan) Lord Williams,
former Archbishop of Canterbury
The Hon. Jean-Pierre Vial, Former Senator,
Republic of France
His Beatitude, Ignatius Youssef III Younan,
Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch and All the
East
*Institutional affiliations are presented only
for the purposes of personal identification.
Source : Mouna Alno-Nakhal