In the Syrian crisis, "it is neither fair nor logical to condition the lifting of sanctions on a so-called political solution while ordinary people are impoverished and suffering from hunger, disease, and humiliation".

The lucid and penetrating judgment on the use of the sanctions long imposed by the international community on Bashar al Assad's Syria comes from Ignace Youssef III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch of the Syriac Catholics. The Primate of the Syriac Catholic Church, who usually resides at the patriarchal seat in Lebanon, expressed his thoughts in his Easter message.

In the Easter text, the Patriarch called on "international decision-makers and all those of good will to make efforts to lift the unjust sanctions imposed on the Syrian people, whose suffering is intensifying day by day". The situation in Syria is a terrible catastrophe - the Patriarch remarks – which has surpassed the brutality of the emperors of time, past invaders, and occupiers: "Ten years of war, killing, destruction, and the international conflict on its soil have only led to the abuse of the Syrian people and the destruction of its economic, social, and civilizational structure".