Al-Jaafari: Attaining Peaceful Solution to Crisis Needs Interaction with Proposed Political Program
NEW York, (ST) – Syria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations, Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari said that the Syria government has recently proposed a comprehensive political program to solve the crisis in Syria based on national dialogue among the Syrians themselves under a Syrian leadership.
“We urge every one who claims keenness to settle the crisis in Syria peacefully to positively interact with this program and propose constructive ideas to support its implementation instead of calling for refusing political solutions and national dialogue.” Al-Jaafari said during a UN Security Council’s session held on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
He strongly condemned allegations and claims put forward by some countries’ delegations against Syria during the session, pointing out that “countries of these delegations, particularly Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, have spared no effort to escalate the crisis in Syria through supporting, sheltering and arming terrorist groups, and through disseminating extremism in Syria and foiling every peaceful solution to the crisis.”
The Syrian Representative at the UN urged the Security Council to approve a request by the state of Palestine to obtain full UN membership and to guarantee the restoration of the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights including their right to return to their homeland Palestine and to be fairly compensated for their losses in accordance with the UN General Assembly’s Resolution No. 194 for 1948.
On behalf of the Syrian government, al-Jaafari welcomed the presence of Riad al-Maliki, the Foreign Minister of Palestine, which only has become a non-member observer state at the United Nations after more than 65 years of the issuance of resolution No. 181 as a first step towards restoring the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to establish their independent state with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as a capital based on the borders of June 4th 1967.
Al-Jaafari, who criticized the UNSC disability to end the catastrophe of the Palestinian people and guarantee the restoration of their legitimate rights, said “If we want to keep what remained of United Nations’ credibility, prevent war and enhance peace opportunities in our region, the United Nations and its member states must stop dealing with the Arab-Israeli conflict routinely or occasionally without serious moves that lead to touchable results on ground. Adopting necessary procedures to put an end to the United Nations’ disability to do its duties towards ending the Israeli occupation of Arab territories is also a must.”
“This disability has been caused, as all know, due to the intransigent Israeli governments which have been unjustifiably and blindly backed by some influential UNSC member states,” al-Jaafari explained.
He expressed concern that the issue of settling the Arab-Israeli conflict wasn’t listed among the UN Chief priorities of 2013 and that the issue of the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan was completely ignored by the Mideast Peace Process Coordinator Robert Seri, though Syria had warned repeatedly against ignoring this basic part of discussing the situation in the Middle East.
“More than 45 years have passed since the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan, but these years were not enough to force Israel to implement related UN resolutions, including resolutions Nos./497, 242 and 338/ aiming to end occupation and halt the Israeli terrorism and dangerous violations of human rights there,” al-Jaafari said.
He added that Syria had informed the UN General Assembly of all the Israeli violations including acts of kidnapping Syrian citizens at the Syrian side of the separation zone and providing assistance to armed terrorist groups in the separation zone aiming at justifying the building of a 42km long segregation wall in the occupied Golan. He urged the Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities in accordance with the UN Charter and adopt prompt procedures to put an end to the Israeli aggressive policies.
He regretted that despite all the documented Israeli criminality and the resolutions issued by the United Nations, the Israeli leaders responsible for the war crimes and the crimes against humanity are still out of the reach of international accountability due to the illegitimate immunity granted to them by some UNSC member states.
Concluding his statement, al-Jaafari wished that statements by representatives of the United States, France and Britain were balanced relating the Syrian situation and were open enough to come in harmony with these countries’ commitments according to the Charter’s rules, the International Law principles, Geneva Statement and Lakhdar Brahimi’s mission in a way that supports the national dialogue which leads to solving the crisis in Syria peacefully.
H. Mustafa