Foreign Ministry: “Moderate Opposition” Groups Involved in Terrorist Attacks in Aleppo

DAMASCUS– Foreign and Expatriates Ministry sent on Sunday letters to the UN Secretary General and Head of the Security Council complaining about the continued terrorist attacks targeting safe neighborhoods in Aleppo city since Friday, according to SANA.

In the letters, the Ministry affirmed that armed groups classified by some Western countries as “moderate opposition” are involved, along with the internationally listed Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist organization, in Aleppo attacks, which included shelling of hundreds of rockets, mortars and gas cylinder bombs that indiscriminately target neighborhoods and have so far claimed the lives of 110 civilians, including 40 children, and left hundreds of others injured.

 These attacks, the letters said, are “part of the series of the systematic terrorist acts plotted and prepared by the Turkish regime and perpetrated by the ‘moderate opposition’ groups in cooperation and coordination with Jabhat al-Nusra and its affiliates such as Jaish al-Islam, Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Fatah among others.”

This is happening in “a blatant attempts by the regime of Erdogan and the other regimes supporting and sponsoring terrorism in Riyadh and Doha to undermine the efforts seeking to stop the bloodshed and to foil the Geneva talks and the truce arrangements,” the letters added.

The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry dismissed the rejection of the Security Council representatives of the US, France, Britain and Ukraine to place “Jaish al-Islam” and “Ahrar al-Sham” on the Council’s list of terrorist groups and entities.

This refusal only stresses that these countries and others continue to use double standards regarding the fight against terrorism and are not serious about this fight, said the Ministry, adding that the real cause allowing these massacres in Aleppo and the breaches of the cessation of hostilities agreement to happen lies in turning blind eyes to the Turkish regime’s opening of its border to let thousands of terrorists, all types of weapons and even some Turkish soldiers, into northern Aleppo.

It conveyed in its letters Syria’s demand for vehement and immediate Security Council condemnation of the terrorist organizations’ crimes.

The Council, the letters said, is demanded to assume its responsibilities in preserving international peace and security through taking immediate deterrent and punitive measures against the countries and regimes supporting terrorism, mainly those of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, to stop those from going on with supporting terrorism and compel them to abide by the relevant Security Council resolutions 2170, 2178, 2199 and 2253.

The Foreign Ministry also stressed in its letters that the Syrian government will not be dissuaded by the terrorist attacks to continue its duty of fighting terrorism and working for a political solution to the crisis through a Syrian–led dialogue.