Al-Jaafari: humanitarian pause in Aleppo fighting aimed to refute western pretexts

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari has underscored that the humanitarian pause in the fighting in Aleppo aimed at refuting pretexts of western countries.

He told the Lebanese Assafir newspaper that Syria and Russia have stopped airstrikes on gunmen holed up in the province in order to refute humanitarian pretexts of western countries.

“The pause in fighting helped gunmen launch attacks on several areas in the province,” Dr. A-Jaafari asserted, pointing out that military support for gunmen has not stopped 

“Moscow always urges UN Special Envoy for Syria Mr. Staffan de Mistura to go ahead with talks, but there is no U.S. approval…America, Britain and France are working on diplomatic escalation against Moscow and Damascus,” the veteran diplomat said

He expects that military decisiveness will be the solution in Aleppo. “Airstrikes will be resumed soon by Syrian army and Russia against armed groups.”

65 chemical attacks

Asked about chemical attacks carried out by armed groups against civilians two weeks ago, Dr. al-Jaafai affirmed that no press release or decision has been issued by Mr. de Mistura or Mr. Ban ki-Moon in this regard.

“Since the start of crisis in the country, the  number of Syrian official letters sent to the United Nations reached 500, including 119 letters related to terrorism and chemical attacks. But there has been no reply from the UN,” he asserted, indicating that the number of chemical attacks in Syria is 65.

Add to that, Dr. al-Jaafari referred to letters sent to the UN about US-led coalition’s aggression on Syrian army sites and about the Turkish and French  bombardment that killed hundreds of civilians in Raqqa, Manbej and other Syrian areas.

” The United Nations has not formed a committee to investigate these violations. It formed a committee to investigate attack on aid convoy in Aleppo and it will issue a decision by the end of this month pointing accusing finger at Syria,” the diplomat clarified.

Raqqa battle

As for the battle of liberating Raqqa launched by the US-backed ‘Syrian Democratic Forces’ in parallel with continuity of Mosul battle in Iraq, Dr. al-Jaafari said: “This is nonsense. The U.S. distinguishes between terrorism in Syria and terrorism in Iraq. Syria has not asked the U.S to help it in Raqqa, while Iraqi government asked the US to help it in Mosul. If the U.S. wants to fight terrorism in Syria it must coordinate with us, but it doesn’t want this.”

In 2013, the diplomat was meeting Syrian community in the United States. He went to California where the largest number of Syrian community’s members are living. He was surprised when he saw 27 opposition figures standing at the hotel’s entrance while there were 1000 pro-government expatriates inside the hotel’s hall.

The scene was frightening for the FBI men, who were inside the hall. Most of the Syria expatriates stand by Syrian government, Dr. al-Jaafai recalled.

 Basma Qaddour