Foreign Ministry: International Coalition’s Aggression on Syrian Army An Act of Supporting Terrorism

DAMASCUS – Foreign and Expatriates Ministry stressed that the act of aggression launched by the illegitimate international coalition led by the US against the Syrian Arab Army’s forces on Tuesday evening is an act of supporting terrorism and jeopardizing regional and international security and stability, SANA reported.

The US-led coalition attacked a position of the Syrian Arab Army on al-Tanf road in the eastern countryside of Homs, leaving a number of Syrian soldiers dead and causing material damage.

 In two letters addressed to the UN Secretary General and the Chairman of the Security Council on Wednesday, the Ministry said the coalition’s new aggression discloses the real goals of this coalition which have nothing to do with the goal of fighting ISIS as claimed by its member states.

“The real goal is implementing agendas that aim at targeting the steadfastness of Syria and its army and attempting to debilitate it through prolonging the terrorist war on it,” the Ministry added.

The crimes committed by this illegitimate coalition are the clearest proof of the misleading targeting the international public opining and the Security Council in particular that is being practiced by the countries of this coalition, the Ministry’s letters read.

They added that while these countries falsely claim that they respect the international humanitarian law and human rights, they are leading a coalition that is practicing terrorism and violating the rules of the international humanitarian law, the UN Charter and the Security Council resolutions on Syria which all stress on respecting the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria.

“Syria renews its condemnation in the strongest terms of these attacks carried out by this illegitimate coalition against the Syrian Arab Army that is leading a relentless war on the terrorism of ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra and other terrorist organizations,” said the Foreign Ministry in its letters.

It went on saying that Syria warns the coalition of the dangers of this escalation and its repercussions and demands that the U.S. administration and the countries of the coalition stop launching such horrifying attacks “which have so far yielded nothing but making ISIS stronger, at the time when the Syrian Arab Army and the allied forces are making daily achievements in confronting the forces and organizations of terrorism.”

The coalition’s repeated attacks on the Syrian Arab Army and Syrian citizens and infrastructure must stop as they fall in the line of supporting terrorism and would, if continued, constitute a threat to security and stability in the region and the world, the Ministry said.

Syria, the Ministry added, demands that the Security Council shoulder its responsibilities towards these attacks on Syria’s sovereignty and army and civilian people and hold this illegitimate coalition to account before such unjustifiable attacks aggravate.