Al-Jaafari: Need to end economic terrorism represented by unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria

New York, SANA- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari stressed the necessity of ending the economic, trade, financial and health terrorism represented by the unilateral coercive measures imposed by western countries on Syria, pointing out that achieving any improvement on the humanitarian situation necessitates cooperation and coordination with the Syrian State and refraining from politicizing the humanitarian work.

Al-Jaafari said during a UN Security Council’s session via video on the “humanitarian situation in Syria” on Tuesday that Syria has recently alone and in cooperation with a number of UN member states sent official letters and calls to the UN secretary General and presidents of the Security Council calling for lifting those illegitimate coercive economic measures imposed by a number of UN member states on the Syrian people and a number of friendly peoples.

He indicated that those calls received positive response from the UN secretary General and a number of senior UN officials, among them the UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of the unilateral coercive measures on the implementation of human rights and Special Rapporteurs on the right to education, on adequate housing, and on the right to food, in addition to World Health Organization and more than forty other global organizations which call for lifting the unilateral coercive measures that affect almost two billion persons in the affected countries.

He said that the US administration and its allies continued to violate the international law and the UN charter and human rights instruments as they attempted during the past two months to foil any initiatives or draft resolutions demanding to end the repercussions of those measures on the possibility of fighting Coronavirus at the targeted countries, adding even the US administration announced the extension of the unfair unilateral coercive sanctions imposed on the Syrian people in a flagrant violation of the international law, UN charters and resolutions and all the calls to lift those measures.

He indicated that Syria has repeatedly informed the UN Security Council along the past years on the catastrophic effects of the coercive economic measures on the daily life of the 24 million Syrians and the ability of the state’s institutions and the health, economic and service sectors to shoulder their responsibilities in the best way amid the epidemic of coronavirus.

Al-Jaafari said that the coercive measures imposed by the EU and the US are illegal, and represent an attempt to circumvent the legitimacy of the Security Council and are aimed at undermining the sovereignty of the Syrian State.

Al-Jaafari pointed out that the prospects of the European and American medical and humanitarian supplies to Syria are at their lowest levels due to imposing a wide range of restrictions and preconditions for these supplies, adding that all the allegations of Western countries which impose coercive measures on Syria are not more than a new desperate attempt that seeks to “humanize their brutal behavior” and their economic terrorism and collective punishment practiced against the Syrian people.

al-Jaafari said that the Turkish regime violates again its obligations under international law and international water and rivers agreements through building the “Elisso Dam” on the Tigris River which will deprive millions of Syrians and Iraqis to benefit from water for years, in addition to that the Turkish regime continues to use water as a weapon against the Syrian civilians in Hasaka city and its surroundings.

Al-Jaafari indicated that the US occupation forces impeded the work of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent in the northeastern areas of the country, and sought to replace it with other organizations that lack legitimacy.
He concluded as saying that achieving improvement on the humanitarian situation in Syria necessitates complete cooperation and coordination with the Syrian state and to refrain politicizing the humanitarian work and that the western countries to abandon their policies based on imposing coercive measures and preconditions on the humanitarian and developmental work.

Hala Zain