The decision to withdraw the honor can only be made by a French president, as the top-ranking member of the National Order of the Légion d’honneur. The honor was created by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1802 to reward distinguished citizens and military valour, and Macron has said he aims to “return to the original spirit” of the honor. LONDON: France will strip Syrian president, Bashar Assad, of his Légion d’honneur, as the French president, Emmanuel Macron, sets about reforming the procedure and overhauling the candidacy criteria required before being considered a suitable recipient of the country’s most prestigious honor. Less than a week after France joined the US and Britain in missile strikes against Syrian targets in response to the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, the Elysée palace said a “disciplinary procedure” for withdrawing the award was under way. The decision to withdraw the honor can only be made by a French president, as the top-ranking member of the National Order of the Légion d’honneur. Assad was decorated with the great cross, the highest of the distinction’s five grades, after he took office in 2001. The honor was created by Napoléon Bonaparte in 1802 to reward distinguished citizens and military valour, and Macron has said he aims to “return to the original spirit” of the honor by restricting the number of awards and ensuring they are based on merit. Assad’s decoration, by the former president Jacques Chirac during a state visit to Paris, did not become public knowledge until eight years later when the Syrian embassy in France mentioned it to the author of a book on the award. Rules making it easier to take back the honor from foreigners were finally introduced in 2010, only after the former Panama military dictator, Manuel Noriega, decorated in 1987, was removed from power by the US two years later and extradited to France to serve 10 years in jail for money laundering. French presidents can now strip the award from any foreigner sentenced to at least a year in prison, or who has “committed acts or behaved in such a way that could be declared dishonorable, or could damage the interests of France abroad, or causes that France supports”. Since the change, the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has had his decoration withdrawn, following accusations of sexual harassment and rape, as have the cyclist Lance Armstrong, for using performance-enhancing drugs, and the fashion designer John Galliano after he made antisemitic slurs. Assad has been accused of massacring tens of thousands of his own people, including in chemical attacks, during the civil war that has raged in Syria since 2011. The decision to strip him of his honor “does not mean France will not continue to work with all parties in Syria, including the regime, to find a solution” to the crisis, the Elysée said.