President Assad said such honors, bestowed by a “slave country” that bombs Syria, are not worthy to be worn.
“The ministry of foreign affairs… has returned to the French republic… the decoration of the Grand Croix of the Légion d’honneur awarded to President Assad,” the Syrian Presidency announced on Twitter.
ردّت وزارة الخارجية والمغتربين إلى الجمهورية الفرنسية عبر السفارة الرومانية بدمشق والتي ترعى المصالح الفرنسية بسورية، ردت وسام "جوقة الشرف الفرنسي من رتبة الصليب الأكبر" .. الذي كان الرئيس الفرنسي الأسبق جاك شيراك قد قلّده للرئيس الأسد خلال زيارة سيادته لباريس في حزيران عام 2001. pic.twitter.com/eE5Vd4bGld
— Syrian Presidency (@Presidency_Sy) April 19, 2018
The award is the highest French order of merit, established in 1802 by Napoléon Bonaparte and retained by all the divergent governments and regimes later holding power in France, up to the present.
The order was the first modern order of merit. It is noteworthy that all previous orders were crosses or shared a clear Christian background, whereas the Légion is a secular institution.
Front National leader Marine Le Pen denounced Macron’s involvement against Syria and commented on Twitter: “The United States is a propaganda specialist. We already had to live this at the time of Iraq, but the wisdom of Jacques Chirac allowed that France did not fall into this trap and retained its uniqueness and its independence.
“I supported Donald Trump’s foreign policy when he said that he wanted the United States to stop the interference, that is, exactly what he did by participating in the strikes in Syria. In contrast, I remained true to my principles.
“Emmanuel Macron did not choose to follow Jacques Chirac. He went to comply with the American demands for strikes outside international law.”
Le Pen had earlier lamented on the social network that “these strikes against Syria engage us in a way with unpredictable and potentially dramatic consequences. At the National Front, the denunciation is unanimous.”
“Finally Macron has his little war!” Louis Aliot, another FN member mocked the French president, and Nicolas Bay tweeted that “the choice to be the vassal of the United States in this new adventure of war discredits the word of France in the world.”
Other voices, including that of conservative politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan condemned “the precipitation of the French government and the President of the Republic to intervene in Syria”.
The Syrian leader said he rejected an award by a “follower of the United States” that supports terrorists and violates the “most elementary norms and principles of the International law”. The medal was returned to Paris through the Romanian Embassy representing Syrian interests in France.
France had previously revoked the awards given to cheating American cyclist Lance Armstrong, British designer John Galliano and Harvey Weinstein, ignoble Hollywood producer. In Paris, in 2011, Galliano shouted in public: “I love Hitler… People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed.”
