New York, SANA – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari reaffirmed that Syria will not give up its right and duty as a sovereign state to eliminate the last strongholds of terrorism in Idleb which takes civilians hostage and attacks neighboring areas.
In a press conference on Friday following a closed Security Council session on Syria, al-Jaafari said that the most heinous hypocrisy is that the Security Council today discusses the humanitarian situation in Syria at the request of the governments occupying parts of Syrian territory, imposing unilateral coercive economic measures on the Syrian people, attempting to defend a terrorist organization in Idleb, and more over Seizing Syrian oil like gangs and pirates.
He said that some members of the Security Council, namely France, UK, the United States, Germany and Belgium, have failed miserably in the test of fighting terrorism, and we are still determined that the European Union countries in particular are still dealing in irresponsible way with the file of foreign terrorist fighters who hold European nationalities, as these governments still Refraining from returning these terrorists and their families, and even turns a blind eye to the Turkish regime transferring many of these terrorists from Idlib via Turkey to Libya to get involved in the ongoing conflict there.
Al-Jaafari said the Turkish regime is ignoring commitments it made in the understandings of Astana and Sochi, and seeks to reinforce the terrorist sites in Idleb and support them with more weapons, including drones, noting that terrorists in Idleb have taken about one million Syrians hostage and cart out aggression against Syrians in neighboring areas and cities, especially Aleppo, Hama, and Lattakia.
“It would have been better for those who called for this meeting today to deal responsibly with the dangerous situation in Idleb, and to work for real cooperation with the Syrian and Russian governments to eliminate terrorism there, instead of continuing to provide cover for the terrorists that control Idleb,” he said, noting that there are about 100 thousand militants in Idleb fighting under the banner of terrorist organizations such as Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Cham, Turkestan Islamic Party, and Faylaq al-Cham.
“After nine years of the terrorist war imposed on Syria, the governments that contributed to igniting terrorism in the country and exacerbated the situation there, continue to refuse to admit in a responsible manner that ending the suffering of the Syrian people requires respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic,” al-Jaafari said stressing that the delivery of humanitarian aid must be done in coordination with the Syrian government and that there is no longer any justification for cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid.
Syria’s Representative stressed the need for expelling of all occupying foreign forces led by the American, Turkish, French and British forces, lifting the economic embargo imposed by US and EU on the Syrian people, and facilitating reconstruction and real relief efforts in the economic, industrial, agricultural, investment and service sectors.
Hazem Sabbagh