Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
New York, SANA- Syria has reiterated its rejection of the attempts to extend the Cross-Border Assistance Mechanism in it, stressing that this mechanism represents a violation of international law and the sanctity of Syrian borders and territories, and a political and humanitarian blackmail.
In a press statement, Syria’s permanent delegation to the United Nations on Wednesday deplored the hostile statements made by the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations over the past days, asserting that they are part of an open propaganda campaign led by her country, and its Western allies to renew the mandate of the Cross-Border Assistance Mechanism, pointing out that while Western countries claim to be keen to meet the needs of the Syrians through this mechanism, they threaten to cut off their funding for the United Nations humanitarian activities in Syria if this mechanism is not extended.
The statement said, “The claim of the American ambassador to be concerned about the humanitarian situation of the Syrian people and the claim that her country provides and grants humanitarian aid to them represents an open political hypocrisy that is inconsistent with the unilateral coercive inhumane measures imposed by her administration on the Syrian people, which represent an economic terrorism and a collective punishment for them, in addition to their negative impact in limiting the ability of the Syrian government to meet the needs and provide basic services to the Syrian people, which was confirmed by the UN World Food Program (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in a recent joint report.”
The statement asserted that that the contents of these statements aim to divert attention from the violation of this mechanism of the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic, and the serious flaws that have dominated the work of the mechanism, starting from the lack of transparency in the monitoring and verification mechanism, to the lack of identification of the partners involved in the process of delivering aid to the essential violation which is represented in the fact that the largest amount of aid has reached the hands of terrorist organizations.
The statement added: “The US ambassador should have announced an end to the occupation of part of the Syrian territory by her country’s forces and stopping their theft of oil, agricultural crops and cultural property of the Syrian people, instead of declaring alleged recipes to deal with a crisis in which her country’s policies were the main cause,”
“The American ambassador’s praise of the Turkish role reflects a consensus on the agenda of the two NATO members in sponsoring terrorist organizations in and around Idleb and finding pretexts to cover the presence of Turkish occupation forces on Syrian territory and to obstruct the delivery of aid from inside Syria, in addition to their systematic use of water as a weapon against civilians,” the statement said.
The statement went on saying that “The American insistence on the continuation of violations of the sanctity of the Syrian borders and territories, whether through the illegal infiltration of its delegations or the extension of the work of this mechanism, represents a violation of international law and a political and humanitarian blackmail, since they come at a time when Western countries claim to be keen to meet the needs of the Syrians through this mechanism while they threaten to cut off their funding for the United Nations humanitarian activities in Syria if this mechanism is not extended.”
Syria’s permanent delegation to the United Nations concluded its statement by emphasizing Syria’s commitment to cooperate with national and international partners to improve the humanitarian situation of Syrians across the Syrian Arab Republic, stressing that the center of humanitarian action is the capital, Damascus, and not anywhere else.
Ruaa al-Jazaeri
