Al-Jaafari calls for lifting coercive economic measures imposed on the Syrian people

New York, (ST) – Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, called for lifting the unilateral coercive economic measures imposed on the Syrian people immediately and putting an end to the economic punitive policies adopted by some countries. He stressed at the same time that despite the pressures that the Syrian people are being subjected to, Syria will not abandon its  sovereignty and Syrians will not allow prejudice to affect their national options.
Al-Jaafari said at a UN Security council session on Wednesday that the economic terrorism, practiced by some western states on Syria, is a complementary to the terrorism of organizations included in the list of Security Council of terrorist entities.

 Al-Jaafari pointed out that “We are astonished at the silence of some officials at the International organization towards the suffering of the Syrians because of terrorism, aggression and the economic, unilateral and coercive measures and the practices of the occupation. Al-Jaafari added that millions of Syrians are suffering due to these measures that affect them in all aspects of life

 Al-Jaafari said that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has ignored in 64 reports and hundreds of briefings the economic, coercive sanctions which have had many negative impacts on the lives of millions of Syrians.

 “Some officials at the General Secretariat and a number of envoys include in their statements fabricated numbers about the real situation in Syria. Some of them said that there are three or four million civilians in Idleb and nearly three million in northeastern part of Syria and thousands in al-Rukban camp and similar in al-Houl camp, but we didn’t hear them talking about the suffering of Syrians because of terrorism,” al-Jaafari said.

 He said that reports of OCHA and their briefings have turned a blind eye to the Syrians who lost their lives in the surgical operation rooms because of the blockade imposed on imports of basic medical equipment.

Al-Jaafari stressed that Syria cooperated with a number of United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and 38 foreign non-governmental organizations licensed to work in Syria, pointing out that Syria’s problem is not with “OCHA” as an institution but rather with those in charge of it. OCHA officials have abstained from offering aid to residents of more than 40 cities and towns recently liberated from terrorism in Idelb and the surrounding areas.

 Responding to envoys of member states, al-Jaafari clarified that the US occupies al-Tanf region, and it protects and sponsors a terrorist group called “Maghawer al-Cham” who attacked al-Sweida city two years ago and killed hundreds of civilians. “Even though, the US envoy calls on Syria and its allies to provide aid to al-Rukban and al-Tanf, forgetting that the occupation is the side which should provide humanitarian aid to the civilians who live in a region under occupation according to International Humanitarian Law,” al-Jaafari concluded.   

 Raghda Sawas