Occupation, Terrorism and Extremism Biggest Obstacle Facing Development in the Region

NEW YORK-Achieving sustainable development in many countries depends mainly on partnership and on joint action to build societies where peace prevails away from politicization and double standard policies and within the framework of respecting countries’ sovereignty, Syria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations  Bashar al-Jaafari has underscored.

During the general debate of the Economic Committee of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, al-Jaafari said “the terrorism and extremism from which our region is suffering  constitutes the biggest obstacle in the face of development, stressing that terrorism and extremism are based on certain mentality that cancels the other and threatens the essence of co-existence which has been a sort of culture that has contributed to maintaining Syria’s cultural identity.

 Al-Jaafari went on to say that Israel’s continued occupation of the Syrian Golan and its looting of the natural resources in the occupied Palestinian lands in addition to its direct intervention in escalating crisis in Syria through supporting terrorists in the disengagement zone in Golan undermine the agreement of disengagement in the Golan and seriously threaten the region’s security and stability.

He clarified that the threat of terrorism is not confined to security, it also targets the economic, social and environmental sides, al-Jaafari added, pointing out that these threats are embodied in looting natural resources and destroying infrastructure, cultural heritage and social fabric.

 This necessitates that all countries should seriously deal with the obligations approved by the UN Security Council’ resolutions relating to combating the direct and indirect financing of terrorists and terrorist organizations and should work collectively to weaken terrorists, according to al-Jaafari.

He asserted that the continuity of using the economic sanctions and unilateral coercive measures against some countries in the region as a tool for political pressure on these countries’ governments and peoples have badly affected many vital sectors.

Al-Jaafari said that a recent UN report revealed that the economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union on Syria have affected all categories of the Syrian society and  all sectors had bad impacts on the livelihood of the Syrians.

In the light of these facts, al-Jaafari said, the implementation of the goals of sustainable development for (2030 plan) requires the immediate ending of the unilateral, coercive economic measures.

He called for confronting the challenges by drawing up visions to attain sustainable development and preparing strategies and solutions that achieve international solidarity and actual partnership.

  Hamda Mustafa