Uprooted Palestinian: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM – سلام القدس عليكم: Bashar al-Jaafari: “Syria rejects Canadian draft resolution [to U.N. General Assembly] which calls for the cessation of combat activities in Aleppo without removing terrorists…while the U.S. administration doesn’t learn from its mistakes, insisting on providing armed terrorist groups with all sorts of weapons including anti-air missiles”

Monday, 12 December 2016

Bashar al-Jaafari: “Syria rejects Canadian draft resolution [to U.N. General Assembly] which calls for the cessation of combat activities in Aleppo without removing terrorists…while the U.S. administration doesn’t learn from its mistakes, insisting on providing armed terrorist groups with all sorts of weapons including anti-air missiles”

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(New York, 9 December 2016) ~ Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari said that Syria rejects the Canadian draft resolution on the situation in Aleppo which was submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, calling on the Assembly’s presidency to obtain the opinion of Assembly’s legal counselor.

ORIGINAL STATEMENT IN ARABIC

During a UN General Assembly’s session for voting on the aforementioned Canadian draft resolution which calls for the cessation of combat activities in Aleppo without removing terrorists from it, al-Jaafari said that the practices of Canada’s delegation and those who joined it highlight the huge gap between theory and practice with regard to states’ sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity.

Al-Jaafari added that Canada’s delegation and its partners violated the sovereignty of Syria by calling for convening this session without consulting with the Syrian delegation, and that they also violated Article 12 of the UN Charter which states the inadmissibility of discussing any file in the absence of a UN Security Council request.

He noted that Canada’s delegation, which feigns caring for the Syrian people, had voted a few days ago against a draft resolution on condemning the Israeli occupation of the Golan and against a resolution that considers Israeli settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan illegal, and this blatant contradiction shows the ill intentions of those who submitted the draft resolution on Aleppo including Canada.

Al-Jaafari pointed out that since day one, the Canadian government has participated in the so called “international coalition” against ISIS despite that this coalition is illegal and violates the Syrian sovereignty and destroys infrastructure, adding that Canadian aircrafts along those of the US, France, Britain, and Denmark destroyed infrastructure in Syria instead of targeting ISIS, instead killing innocent civilians and targeting schools, hospitals, and villages.

He went on to note that the coalition targeted Syrian Arab Army positions that were preventing ISIS from expanding, asserting that the true goal of the coalition’s airstrikes is to prevent the Iraqi and Syrian armies from closing in on terrorists.

“It seems that the US administration doesn’t learn from its mistakes, and today it insists on providing armed terrorist groups with all sorts of weapons including anti-air missiles, then they talk about security of civilian airplanes!” Syria’s Representative added.

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Al-Jaafari pointed out that the Canadian government, which claims to care for the interests of the Syrian people, along with many of those who adopted the resolution, impose unilateral economic sanctions that harm the Syrian people and limit the Syrian government’s ability to provide the citizens’ daily needs, asserting that Syrians never delegated those who presented this resolutions or anyone else to talk about their suffering, a suffering exacerbated by these same states that submitted the resolution.

“Before calling for holding this meeting and submitting the draft resolution, the Canadian delegation and its partners should have listened to the harrowing tales accounts about the crimes of terrorist organizations that were told by tens of thousands of our people who were saved by the Syrian Army and its allies in Aleppo city during the past few days, ”

…al-Jaafari said, adding that they also should have acknowledged the achievement made by the Syrian Army and its allies who liberated more than 100,000 Syrian citizens from the clutches of Jabhat al-Nusra and provided them with food, medicine, and shelter.

“The Canadian delegation should have looked at the photos of the bodies of scores of innocent civilians who had tried to flee areas controlled by the terrorists to the areas where the Syrian Army is located, who were killed by those ‘moderate opposition’ members, some of whom have the nationalities of states that sponsor the Canadian draft resolution,” he added.

Syria’s Representative said that the Canadian draft resolution is a game of taking turns played by some delegations in the UN who call for endless meetings and adopt resolutions under various agendas for the sole purpose of supporting and protecting terrorists and pressuring the Syrian government and its allies.

“We count neither on the neutrality of the Canada’s permanent delegation nor the integrity of the Saudi, Turkish, and Qatari delegations whose governments sponsored terrorism in Syria… we also don’t count on the audacity of the delegation of Israel which occupies the occupied Syrian Golan and supports terrorist groups in the disengagement zone, or on the arrogance of the US, British, and French delegations that continue to provide political, media, and military cover and support to terrorist groups in Syria.” Al-Jaafari said.

He concluded by saying that voting agaisnt the Canadian draft resolution will show states’ rejection of exploiting the suffering of the Syrian people and will reflect their support for a political solution for the crisis in Syria and for the Syrian government’s right and duty to fight terrorism.

The General Assembly voted in favor of the non-binding resolution, and after the voting al-Jaafari said that this resolution is politicized and violates the UN Charter, voicing regret over its adoption.

He said that the statements made by certain states prove that they don’t care about the humanitarian situation in Aleppo and that all they want is to support al-Nusra and other terrorist groups they back.

Syria’s Representative said that all the desperate attempts to distort facts via fabricated reports and to exploit the UN to serve destructive agendas will not dissuade the Syrian government and its allies from fighting terrorism, affirming that:

“the states sponsoring terrorism will not assassinate the dreams and future of the Syrian people, and the Syrian government and its army and allies will restore security, stability, development, and prosperity to every inch of Syria, and that reconstruction process will not see the participation of any sponsor of terrorism.”

“I would like to reassure the states that sponsor terrorism in Aleppo that the Syrian Army has up to this point liberated 93% of the areas that terrorists used to control in Aleppo city, and their bloody games is taking its last breaths,” he said, asserting that the liberation of the entirety of Aleppo will be achieved very soon.

“My advice to the sponsors of terrorism and terrorists in Aleppo is to find a wall to cry at like grounded children and on which to suspend their frustration, failure, and defeat. Their bloody terrorist game in Syria and in Aleppo is over,”

…al-Jaafari went on to say, adding that they should admit defeat as the paltry, ridiculous, unjust, and politicized resolution adopted today will not change the fact that they were defeated.

He also thanked the states that acted with independence and respected international law by voting against the resolution or abstaining from voting.

Chinese, Iranian Representatives call for combating terrorism and seeking a solution to the crisis

For his part, China’s Representative said that the unilateral work for imposing pressure and politicizing the humanitarian situation in Syria will complicate the problem, considering that counterterrorism is an important part of the discussions on the crisis in Syria.

He called upon the international community to adopt unified criteria for countering all groups designated by UNSC as terrorist and concentrating on counterterrorism in Syria, pointing out to his country’s constructive role in seeking a solution to the crisis in Syria and finding a political solution as soon as possible.

The Chinese Envoy stressed that any initiative should respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and should aim at solving problems and not complicating them through the four tracks which are cessation of hostilities, resumption of the intra-Syrian dialogue, counterterrorism and the humanitarian assistance.

He pointed out that the situation in Aleppo and the humanitarian situation in Syria in a general view are not separated and in order to tackle them, we should adopt an integral approach and give a central role for the United Nations as a mediator and coordinator as to exert the required efforts for reaching a fair and sustainable solution to the crisis in Syria.

The Iranian Representative to the UN, on his part, considered that the draft resolution is unilateral and very far from what is taking place in Syria and that it contradicts with the reality.

He stressed that the reason behind terrorism and the violent extremism is some of the foreign states which support terrorists and open the door wide before them.

The Iranian representative said that the main source of the suffering of the civilians is the practices of the terrorist organizations which sow fear and terror among the civilians through using them as human shields