Drafting Syria’s constitution and deciding its future is an exclusive right of the Syrian people: al-Jaafari

NEW YORK, (ST)-Drafting Syria’s constitution and deciding its future is an exclusive right of the Syrian people that can’t be waived, Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations said during a Security Council session on Friday, pointing out that attempts by some parties to interfere in the work of the constitutional committee on Syria are the most serious threat facing this committee. 

Syria has dealt flexibly and positively during the preparatory stage for holding the constitutional committee’s meeting and called for full commitment to the rules and procedures related to the committee mainly respecting Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity as well as the Syrian leadership and ownership of the political process and the neutral role of the UN Chief Special envoy for Syria as a facilitator.

  Syria has also called on all UN member states not to impose any conditions, conclusions or ultimatums on the committee, because drafting Syria’s constitution and deciding its future is exclusive to the Syrian people and can’t be relinquished, he stressed.

 He went on to say that the Syrian government delegation to the constitutional committee has actively participated in the first round of discussions, noting that the most dangerous threat to the work of the committee is some parties’  interference in its work and their attempts to hinder its efforts in order to achieve certain agendas that don’t serve the Syrian people’s interests.

The senior Syrian diplomat made it clear that the Syrian people expected that all parties will create suitable environment for the success of the committee’s work, but they (the Syrians) were frustrated over what some international and regional parties’ did to hamper the committee’s work, particularly the Turkish regime, which has occupied Syrian lands, killed many Syrians and displaced more than 180,000 others in order to bring the Erdogan-backed terrorists to the Syrian territories or to what he called the “safe zone”, which Syria completely rejects and considers as an occupied land.

He added that in parallel with launching the Constitutional Committee’s work, the US troops in Syria occupied Syria’s oil fields and stole the Syrian people’s resources under complete silence by some Security Council members. The Israeli occupation also conducted repeated airstrikes against Syrian territories and tried to perpetuate its occupation of the Syrian Golan in violation of the international law and the Security Council Resolution No. 350 of 1974, said al-Jaafari, noting the recent Israeli attack which claimed the lives of innocent civilians, wounded scores of citizens and destroyed a number of houses and which was launched while some permanent member states of the Security Council are still providing protection to Israel.

Al-Jaafari reiterated that the major cause of the crisis in Syria is the international terrorism that has targeted Syria for political reasons related to changing the region’s geopolitical map. “This means that the war on Syria will end when the foreign-backed terrorism ends,” al-Jaafari  said, affirming that the Syrian people completely reject all forms of occupation and terrorism as well as any separatist project in Syria and they call for the immediate lifting of the unilateral coercive measures which represent an economic terrorism against them.

Hamda Mustafa