Sabbagh: Syria has suffered from Western countries’ exploitation of the United Nations system

New York, (ST) – Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh affirmed that Syria has suffered during the past ten years from the exploitation of the United Nations by some Western countries to serve their hostile policies against Syria. He indicated the importance of conducting a review of the UN work mechanisms, and preventing its exploitation by those countries in the service of destructive agendas.

Sabbagh said during a session of the Security Council yesterday: Syria, during the past decade, was the victim of the loss of true pluralism and the exploitation of the UN system by some countries that used it as a platform to serve their hostile and interventionist policies in Syria’s affairs, pointing out that Syria was left alone in the face of the threats of the most ferocious terrorist organizations.

Sabbagh said that Syria’s resources and national wealth have been looted by foreign forces illegally present on its lands, while the human suffering of its people is exacerbated by unilateral, illegal, inhuman and immoral coercive measures imposed on them.” These immoral coercive measures negatively affect all aspects of life, and leave a large number of displaced people or refugees, which constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations”, Sabbagh added.

Sabbagh indicated that there is an urgent need, today more than ever, to review the methods of work within the United Nations system and to ensure the promotion of true pluralism based on the Charter, by respecting the purposes and principles of the Charter and achieving the goals sought by the founding fathers of the United Nations system, and raising the effectiveness and efficiency of its work, which leads to raising its credibility at the international level.

Sabbagh said that the United Nations, since its foundation, nearly 80 years ago, has embodied the basic interface of the multilateral system, and has directly contributed to settling disputes by peaceful means, decolonization, peacekeeping and building, strengthening efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and combating terrorism, and greatly influenced its mechanisms and methods of work.

Sabbagh also said that the mechanisms and methods of UN Organization’s work greatly affected the development of friendly relations between its member states, but they were equally affected by the escalating challenges posed by the changing reality of international relations, which necessitates the need for permanent and comprehensive reviews of these mechanisms and methods of work, whether at the substantive or procedural level.

Sabbagh pointed out that the General Assembly has witnessed, in recent years, a remarkable increase in the number of items on its agenda, and an “unprecedented” increase in the number of resolutions taken without consensus, and resorting in many cases to pushing for a vote on them despite prior knowledge of the existence of aspects fundamental disagreement on the substantive and procedural levels.

The Security Council witnessed sharp political polarization through which some permanent member states deliberately rearranged issues of importance and mixed priorities within their efforts to divert it from its main purpose of maintaining international peace and security, and to harness it to serve destructive agendas.

Sabbagh said that the basic ingredients for advancing the work of the United Nations are embodying the meanings of true pluralism by promoting the values of peace, peaceful settlement of disputes, equality in sovereignty among all member states, development and economic cooperation among them, and the protection of common benefits, which requires all member states to adhere to the foundations on which they were built.

Sabbagh stressed that developing and improving the work of the main organs of the United Nations, particularly the General Assembly and the Security Council, requires more objectivity and rational planning to manage their discussions and address the items that are included on their agendas, especially, because the Charter of the United Nations adopted a clear division and specific controls for the work of its main organs, including the General Assembly, the Security Council and other bodies established under the Charter.

Sabbagh pointed out that the multilateral system, embodied by the United Nations, has faced over the past two decades many challenges while dealings with a number of political, economic and social crises, which were manifested in the failure to prevent the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and in the inability to end the tragedy of the Palestinian people living under the control of the Israeli occupation for decades, and in confronting the increasing terrorist threats, the spread of pandemics and diseases, and the exacerbation of human suffering due to poverty, hunger, thirst, and the absence of healthcare.

Raghda Sawas