Syrian Future Movement
Political Bureau
Statement No. (M.S. 2023.08.02)
Issued on: 2023.08.16
Regarding the US Treasury’s Sanctions on the “Sulayman Shah and Hamza” Factions
On Monday, August 17, 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a statement pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13894, designating the “Sulayman Shah and Hamza” factions as members of the Syrian National Army. The statement named Muhammad al-Jassem and his brother Walid al-Jassem, both commanders of the Sulayman Shah Brigade, and Saif Bulad Abu Bakr, commander of the Hamza Division, for their involvement in serious human rights violations. A car dealership owned by Muhammad al-Jassem was also designated.
- The Syrian Future Movement believes that these sanctions come in their natural context, amid a reality in which corruption and depravity are widespread, with a blatant absence of the rule of law.
- The Syrian Future Movement regrets that we have not been able, through the official Syrian opposition institutions themselves, to prosecute the corrupt and criminals! This is evidenced by the failure of the committee established by the Syrian Islamic Council, which acknowledged the existence of criminal acts that violate the law and the prevalence of corruption, to hold them accountable due to the corrupt cover supporting them.
- The Syrian Future Movement views the statement by the Ministry of Defense in the Interim Government as a threat to the inclusion of US sanctions on all Syrian opposition institutions, most notably the Ministry of Defense in the Syrian Interim Government and all military formations within the Syrian National Army.
- The Syrian Future Movement holds Turkey, as the custodian state of northern Syria, responsible for supporting individuals and factions that have deservedly been placed on US sanctions lists. It views the statement by the Ministry of Defense of the Syrian Interim Government as an acquiescence to Turkey’s endless support for them and a failure to hold them accountable for their successive crimes.
- The Syrian Future Movement calls on free people, revolutionaries, and Syrians in northwestern Syria to expose the individuals and entities that seek to brand the Syrian revolution and opposition as criminals. This will threaten the structure of the Syrian opposition and constitute a dangerous turning point in the history of the revolution as a whole, potentially placing them on the same side internationally as the Syrian regime.
- The Syrian Future Movement calls on faction leaders to pursue the matter with utmost seriousness and agree on a legal national contract formula by establishing Syrian channels for monitoring and accountability to prevent corrupt individuals from operating in liberated areas.
- The Syrian Future Movement is sounding the alarm and warning the Syrian opposition, armed factions, and the free Syrian people that continuing to protect the corrupt and criminals means the destruction of the revolution’s purity and the loss of the battle for values, morals, patriotism, and the law against the Assad regime. This could turn the Syrian reality into an open conflict between criminals and corrupt individuals! Rather than between a free people calling for the establishment of a state of law on the one hand, and the unjust and criminal Assad regime on the other.
