Whilst recognising that the problems in Syria are not only due to sanctions and that responsibility also falls on Syrian leaders, the nuns believe that “the time after the fighting is more difficult” as an "economic war" is underway over power, privileges, influence on the territory with the terrorists "still burning wheat fields in the north".
And yet "the domestic political-economic system, which has defended the country’s sovereignty, now risks jeopardising it if it does not adequately take care of the suffering of the people.”
For the nuns, the fact remains that sanctions "have been renewed,” indeed increased and their harmful effects are seen on the civilian population, on “people like me and you,” say the nuns, “men, women and children ... not politicians, not leaders. Sanctions are against the people.”
“Of course, whoever decides to impose them knows this well.” Their goal is “to drive people to bring down those who rule, to achieve what weapons could not achieve. But is it moral to use the suffering of peoples for political ends?”
The answer to the question above is "no" but the reality is that the world has been shaped by wars, genocides and oppression. This on-going pandemic is a tiny equalizer between the powerful and the powerless. The inescapable first death is the world's ultimate equalizer. Beyond that, there is the second death [2]:
In Revelation 21:8 we read: "[A]s for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."
[1] http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Trappist-nuns:-the-Syrian-people-are-starving-as-a-result-of-'unsustainable'-international-sanctions-50368.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_death#:~:text=In%20Revelation%2021%3A8%20we,which%20is%20the%20second%20death.%22, quoted without hyperlink.
