Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said that the Syrian government is the keenest side to provide all sorts of humanitarian aid to all its citizens wherever they are in the entire Syrian land, clarifying that it fulfills this duty completely in cooperation with the Syrian Arab red Crescent, as it will always be committed to cooperate and coordinate with the United Nations and its humanitarian partners in accordance to regulatory guidelines for consolidating and coordinating the human action.

Al-Jaafari clarified during Security Council session to discuss the 58th report of the UN Secretary-General on the humanitarian condition in Syria “these guidelines highlight sovereignty and independence of states as well as the role of the relevant state in supervising the distribution of the humanitarian assistance inside its territories, as they also stress respect for the principle of neutrality, honesty and non-politicization.”

Al-Jaafari called for stopping the politicization of the humanitarian situation in Syria, including stopping providing false information and figures and stopping ignoring realities and transformations on the ground and increasing the international humanitarian support to respond to the needs of the Syrians.

Al-Jaafari affirmed that the center of humanitarian action on the crisis in Syria starts from Damascus not as promoted by UN Resolution no.2165, that it start from Gaziantep’s Turkish offices or other places, stressing that obtaining the consent of the Syrian government prior to delivering the humanitarian aid through borders is a fundamental principle, in accordance with the UN General Assembly Resolution 46/182 and that should not be limited to notification only as stipulated in the resolution.

He clarified that the UN monitoring mechanism is unable to check whether the aid coming via borders reach to those who need it, as the vast majority of such processes are taking place through the Syrian-Turkish borders and they are targeting the areas where the terrorist groups spread. These groups seize the aid and distribute it to its members.

Al-Jaafari noted that those responsible for United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) have not taken into account transparency standards and could not find the necessary guarantees to persuade the international community that the aid sent via borders is really reaching to those who deserve them not the terrorist groups.

He pointed out that “Tahrir al-Sham Organization”, designated by the UNSC as terrorist, imposed taxes on the aid accessing through borders, particularly Bab al-Hawa border crossing with the Turkish borders, which is a direct financing act to terrorism and a violation of UNSC resolutions relevant. Likewise, the Qatari government paid millions of dollars to Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organizations under pretext of paying ransoms to release hostages held by the terrorist organizations, which constitutes a blatant violation of UNSC Resolution No. 2368.

Al-Jaafari said that the UNSC held hundreds of formal and informal meetings on the humanitarian situation in Syria and adopted many resolutions, wondering whether the resolutions, sessions, and reports are aimed at improving the human condition in Syria or exerting the political pressure on the Syrian government by some sides and using the Syrians suffering as a commodity for cheap political trade.

He went on saying that if the purpose, as some claim is to improve the human situation in Syria, what is required today is not to issue new resolutions or hold sessions, but to help the Syrian government to combat the remnants of the terrorist groups, which were the main cause of the emergence of the humanitarian crisis.

He added that the humanitarian crisis emerged only in the areas where the terrorist organizations are spread along with the illegitimate presence of foreign forces.

Al-Jaafari demanded the UNCC to assume its responsibility to immediately halt the attacks, massacres, and the systematic destruction of the infrastructure in Syria by the illegitimate US-led coalition and make the states of that alliance abide by the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the Security Council.
The senior diplomat said that Syria is determined today more than ever to combat the remaining terrorist groups in Idleb and other areas and to exercise its legal right of self-defense to expel all foreign invading forces from its territories.

“The Syrian government, people and army have a very clear image of who is an enemy and who is a friend as Syria realizes well that combating terrorism is a war imposed by the sponsors of terrorism in order to drain its energy and pass their unjust schemes in the region, in the forefront of the Palestinian cause and pushing the peoples of the region into bloody darkness, in which the extremist Wahhabi thought is its fuel, stressing that Syria will fail all these schemes,” he added.

Al-Jaafari reiterated that Syria is continuing to rehabilitate all the areas destroyed by the terrorists and bring life back to normal so that the Syrian people are able to enjoy the life the used to live before the war of terrorism waged against them and enable the Syrian citizens to return to their homeland, being forced to leave due to terrorism and unilateral economic measures, which has targeted their basic needs.