Any Political Process Should Take into Consideration Fighting Terrorism, Preserving Syria’s Sovereignty, Ending Foreign Troops’ Illegal Presence

NEW YORK, (ST)- Any political process on settlement in Syria should take into consideration fighting terrorism, ending the illegal presence of foreign forces in the country and preserving Syria’s sovereignty, independence  and territorial integrity, otherwise it will be unrealistic and of no horizons, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari has underscored.

Al-Jaafari, who was speaking on Thursday during a Security Council session on the situation in Syria, added that the Syrian constitution is a purely sovereign affair that is decided only by the Syrians away from foreign interference.

He affirmed Syria’s readiness to cooperate with the UN Chief’s Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen as to make his mission in facilitating the intra-Syrian dialogue a success and to achieve progress in the political process. He also stressed the Syrian government’s readiness to discuss with Pedersen, during his next visit to Damascus, cooperation with the UN including in forming the commission in charge of discussing the Syrian constitution. He noted that the delay of launching the commission’s work was caused by the parties which are interfering in the Syrian internal issues and trying to impose their own agenda on the commission.

 Illegal presence of foreign troops in Syria should come to an end

Al –Jaafari renewed the Syrian government’s call for ending the illegal presence of the US, French, British and Turkish forces in Syria and for dissolving the so-called US-led coalition as to put an end to the war crimes and the crimes against humanity perpetrated by this illegal coalition against the Syrian people and infrastructure under the pretext of fighting Deash terror organization.

He reiterated Syria’s absolute rejection of the US aggressive statements about keeping part of its forces in the Syrian territories under whatever pretexts, stressing that any foreign troops presence in Syria without the approval of the Syrian government is an evident aggression that must be immediately ended.

Foreign terrorists

Al-Jaafari criticized the European countries stance on the return of foreign terrorists to their homelands.

He expressed Syria’s astonishment that five years after the Security Council has adopted Resolution No. 2170, which calls for the departure of all foreign terrorists, including the Europeans, from Syria, some European officials say that “the return of those terrorists from Syria poses a threat to European countries and that those terrorists are enemies of the European nation,” forgetting that their governments had promoted those terrorists as “peace doves, jihadis, moderate opposition and friends of the Syrian people”.

Inaction to get the foreign terrorists back to their original countries and punishing them for the crimes they have perpetrated in Syria and Iraq proves the fear of some western states of what these terrorists will uncover about the role of the states that sponsored terrorism, al-Jaafari said.

Elsewhere in the statement, al-Jaafari called for an immediate lifting of the coercive economic measures imposed on the Syrian people and that had catastrophic impacts on the Syrians and badly affected the Syrian national economy.

Hamda Mustafa