Al-Jaafari Asserts Terrorists in Aleppo Hinder Humanitarian Initiatives
NEW YORK, (ST)- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari has briefed the UN General Assembly on what is happening in Aleppo, stressing that foreign-backed terrorist organizations prevent civilians and repentant gunmen from leaving the eastern part of Aleppo city.
He clarified during the session held Thursday evening that the terrorist organizations which capture the eastern part of Aleppo are composed of 27 groups affiliated to the al-Nusra Front [Jabhat al-Nusra], ISIS or al-Qaeda.
“These groups are called by some countries ‘moderate armed opposition’ or ‘angles’ and they receive all forms of support from these countries,” al-Jaafari said, adding that these terrorist groups rejected the Russia-American agreement signed on September 9th in 2016, the initiative of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, and the recent Syrian-Russian initiative announced on October 10th.
He elaborated that the recent Syrian-Russian initiative guarantees safety of the gunmen, who are willing to leave the eastern part of Aleppo to government -held areas and get their status regularized, and it allows gunmen to move to any area they choose with their individual guns.
“The initiative also aims to evacuate wounded persons and provide them with medical care and to resume the work in state institutions there in order to offer services to the citizens who want to stay in the eastern part of Aleppo,” the diplomat said.
Terrorists hinder evacuation of civilians
He, in addition, asserted that the Syrian government opened six exit corridors for civilians and two exit corridors for gunmen to leave the eastern part of Aleppo, but the terrorist organizations , which use civilians as human shields, prevented civilians and gunmen from leaving the area.
“The terrorist organizations used snipers and fired mortars on the exit corridors. They executed 14 persons because they had called for people to leave the terrorist-held area. They also threatened to burn down the homes of the people , who leave the area,” al-Jaafari affirmed.
He added that the terrorists told the people in the eastern part of Aleppo: “We have come to establish the Islamic State here and now you want to leave us alone to confront the Syrian army.”
The diplomat referred to the fact that the situation in Aleppo deteriorated in 2012 when the Turkish regime opened its board for terrorists financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and trained by the U.S. in Turkey.
“Those terrorists have used people as human shields, have destroyed the ancient heritage of Aleppo and have looted the factories and sold them inside Turkish territories,” he said, indicating that more than 1.700.000 persons out of 2.000.000 from the eastern part of Aleppo have fled to government-held areas since August 2012.
He added that the unilateral ‘humanitarian pause’ in fighting, which was reached within the framework of coordination between Syria and Russia aims to evacuate the wounded , sick and elderly people from the eastern part of Aleppo city.
How could the situation be improved?
“The Syrian government continues to cooperate with the United Nations to deliver humanitarian aid to all citizens affected by the crisis nationwide in accordance with the UN principles,” al-Jaafari said, stressing that humanitarian aid is delivered in several unstable areas in Damascus countryside-Harasta, Qedsaya, Doma and Tal-
The diplomat raised the following questions : ” How could the situation in Syria be improved amid the continuity of unilateral sanctions imposed on the Syrian people? How could the situation be improved amid the continuity of the flow of tens of thousands of foreign terrorists into Syria across Turkish border ?Why is there no progress in the implementation of the UN resolutions No. 2170, 2178, 2199, 2253 which are related to counter-terrorism?”
He concluded by saying that the Syrian government welcomes any meeting on Syria as long as the goal is to help the Syrian people in an honest way and far away from exploiting the suffering of Syrian people for political agenda.
BasmaQaddour