Saudi Arabia Sponsors Terrorist Groups Against Syrian State, Says Damascus

DAMASCUS,(ST)_Foreign and Expatriates Ministry has appealed to the UN Security council to coerce Saudi Arabia to halt its secret and public support  for the armed terrorist groups in Syria.

The call, which was made in a letter sent on Wednesday to the UNSC, came after the Saudi authority launched an initiative to unify the armed terrorist groups to fight against the Syrian state in order to abort the political solution to the ongoing crisis in the country.

The ministry said that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sponsored an initiative to end fighting among the armed terrorist groups – The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the al-Nusra Front, the so-called the ‘Islamic Front’ and ‘al-Mojaheden Army’ and others- and sought to ensure logistic, military and financial capabilities to unify them against the Syrian state with a view to aborting Geneva 2 conference.

The ‘nation initiative’

It made it clear that Saudi Arabia authorized the Saudi Sheikh Abdullah Ben Suleiman al-Mhesni, one of the religious references, to launch an initiative called “Nation Initiative’ for immediate ceasefire among conflicting terrorist groups all over Syria.

“The “Jihadi groups” considered that the fatwas (or religious edicts) of Sheikh al-Mhesni must be implemented,” the letter read, noting that the ‘nation initiative’ states that it was launched after consulting nation scholars including Ayman al-Zawaheri , who is described in the initiative as ‘nation sage’.

“The initiative, which was laid out by the Saudi authorities and based on al-Qaeda references’ fatwas and calls , was accepted by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant and the ringleader of the al-Nusra Front, Abu Mohamad al-Julani, as well as the Islamic Front and ‘al-Mojaheden Army’,” the letter said.

The Islamic Front and ‘al-Mojaheden Army’ released a joint statement on January 29th, 2013 to stress their support for the so-called the ‘nation initiative’, while Abu Mohamad al-Julani declared his OK in a video tape.

Public support for al-Qaeda

The ministry underscored that sponsorship of the initiative by the Saudi authorities means a public support for al-Qaeda and the organizations  affiliated to it -regardless of their titles. “It is a flagrant and unprecedented violation of  the UN resolutions including  resolution no. 1373 of  2001,” the ministry said.

It called on the UNSC to blacklist the ‘Islamic Front’ and the ‘al-Mojahedin Army’ as terrorist organizations along with the ‘ISIL’ and the al-Nusra Front which were designated as terrorist groups in 1999.

Warning

The ministry also called for reactivating the UN resolutions related to the exigency of international cooperation in combating terrorism through obliging the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to desist from supporting  the armed terrorist groups in Syria.

It warned that the UN inaction would foil efforts of the ongoing political solution and would lead to spill over of terrorism in other countries, particularly nearby ones that support terrorism in Syria.

Basma Qaddour