One Nation campaign rejects efforts to normalise ties with Syria regime

The One Nation Campaign has categorically rejected the recent normalisation efforts initiated by several Arab countries with the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, affirming the Syrian people’s right to freedom and democracy.

The campaign was launched in early March by more than 100 Arab personalities to provide relief assistance to victims of the massive earthquakes that hit southern Turkiye and northern Syria a month earlier.

“The One Nation Campaign, which took upon itself to support the Syrian and Turkish peoples and mitigate as much as possible the earthquake effects, affirms at the same time its full solidarity with the afflicted Syrian people in confronting the killing and destruction machine of the Assad regime, which is tougher on the Syrians than this great earthquake,” the campaign said in a statement yesterday.

حملة "أمة واحدة"
بيان رفض التطبيع مع نظام الأسد
ونؤكد حق الشعب السوري الإنساني في الحرية والديمقراطية.. pic.twitter.com/0YT2E3RbUg

— أنور مالك (@anwarmalek) April 16, 2023

The statement added that the Syrian regime should not be given a seat in the “expected salvation ship” after all its crimes and it should not be reintegrated into regional and international institutions.

It stressed that everyone who committed war crimes against the Syrian people must be brought to justice.

The statement stressed the need to adhere to the implementation of the political process drawn up by United Nations resolutions, starting with the Geneva 1 statement of 2012 until Resolution 2245 of 2015.

“The decision provides for the formation of a transitional governing body and elections within 18 months under United Nations supervision, and affirms the human rights of the Syrian people, especially the part related to the release of hundreds of thousands of detainees from the regime’s prisons, and the safe return of millions of forcibly displaced persons,” it added.

“We will not back down from our demands for the rights of the Syrian people to freedom and dignity, and our general demand to hold the regime accountable for its crimes is irreplaceable in the interest of the Syrian and Arab people, and even in the interest of all peoples of humanity,” it added.

The statement comes as several Arab countries have recently begun processes to restore their relations with the Assad regime, including the UAE, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria, the Sultanate of Oman, as well as Saudi Arabia, without pressing for accountability for the crimes it committed against its people since the civil war erupted in 2011.

READ: Morocco not invited to Jeddah Summit to discuss Syria’s return to Arab League