Foreign Ministry: Homs Bombings Aim at Undermining Astana Meetings

DAMASCUS– The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said the terrorist attacks in Homs city today, which occurred on the third day of the talks in Geneva, aim at undermining the positive results of the first and second meetings held in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana.

The Ministry was referring to a series of terrorist attacks that targeted two security centers and surrounding areas in Homs city earlier in the morning, in two letters addressed to the UN Secretary General and the Chairman of the Security Council, according to SANA.

The Ministry noted that six suicide bombings happened simultaneously targeting the aforementioned sites, claiming the lives of 50 civilian and military persons and injuring more than 24 others.

 According to the Ministry’s letters, the terrorist organization of Jabhat al-Nusr (also known as Fatah al-Sham), which is one of the offshoots of al-Qaeda, had claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks in Homs.

The Ministry demanded that the UN Secretary General and the Security Council issue condemnation of today’s “cowardly” attacks and other terrorist acts and double work to unify the efforts of the international community towards eliminating terrorism and holding the countries supporting it to account.

“What draws attention is that this terrorist act of aggression comes with the start of the third day of the talks called for by the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura in Geneva, and it aims at undermining the positive results achieved at the first and second meetings in Astana,” said the Ministry in its letters.

“This dangerous development necessitates that also the Special Envoy condemn this act of terror and that all the factions participating in Geneva talks, without exception, condemn such terrorist attacks,” the Ministry added.

It considered that “the moment of truth” has come where the international community, particularly the Security Council, is proved lingering in doing what is necessary to unify the efforts aimed at fighting terrorism that continues to claim the lives of more innocent Syrians.

“This moment,” the Ministry went on saying, “necessitates that the United Nations work on compelling the governments of the countries that are backing the terrorist organizations to stop their violations of the international law and the UN Charter, put an end to the crimes of the terrorist organizations affiliated to them and fully abide by the UN resolutions and those of the Security Council on counterterrorism, mainly resolutions no. 1267/1999, 1373/2001, 2170/2014, 2178/2014, 2199/2015 and 2253/2016.”