Mikdad: US-Led Coalition Committed War Crimes in Syria amid International Community’s Silence

DAMASCUS, (ST)- Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Faisal al-Mikdad has stressed  that the United States has committed crimes against humanity and war crimes in Syria, yet the UN Security Council and international organizations have kept silent.

In a statement to journalists on Sunday, Mikdad affirmed Syria’s call for forming a committee that consists of international humanitarian organizations to conduct wide-scale investigation into the US-led crimes in the city of Raqqa and in other Syrian cities.

“We urge the United Nations to respond to our call and hope that the Security Council member states will agree on this suggestion so that the international community can see how huge the crimes perpetrated by the United States in Syria, through the illegal Washington-led coalition, are”, Mikdad said.

 He added that those who shed crocodile tears over the Syrians have never said a single word about the US-led coalition’s crimes in Raqqa and about the complete destruction of the city under the pretext of fighting Daesh. He cited UN reports saying that 95% of Raqqa is destroyed and that the corpses of some victims are still under the rubbles.

Resolution No. 2401

Regarding the Security Council Resolution 2401, which calls for cessation of hostilities in Syria, Mikdad said that the Syrian state has cooperated with the resolution and it supported the cessation of hostilities move, but the terrorist groups are the party which breaches the resolution by daily rocket and mortar attacks against Damascus, pointing out that victims of the terrorist attacks are civilians.

Syrian army will continue fighting till terrorism is eliminated

Al-Mikdad reiterated that the operations of the Syrian Arab army, its allies and all who support fighting terrorism, won’t stop before terrorism is eliminated.

On the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, Mikdad said the people of eastern Ghouta are taken as hostages and used as human shields by the terrorist groups who prevent civilians from leaving the area through the safe corridor assigned by the Syrian government for this purpose.  He added that the western media outlets should report about this issue if they seek credibility, particularly as Syria has opened safe corridors for the civilians to leave eastern Ghouta and agreed on the truce suggested by the Russian ally, but the terrorist groups keep civilians as hostages.

Mikdad made it clear that the Syrian government attempted to send humanitarian aid convoy of 46 trucks to people in Douma and other areas in the Eastern Ghouta but fire shooting by the terrorist groups against the convoy and the humanitarian corridor hindered the process.

He stressed that Syria supports the entry of humanitarian aid to al-Rukban Camp if there are guarantees that the aid will reach citizens not the terrorists of Daesh or Jabhat al-Nusra

Syria fears no threats

Concerning accusations against Syria about the use of chemical weapons, Mikdad clarified that what is most important for Syria is to stress that “we don’t possess any chemical weapons. So, “how can we use such a weapons if we don’t have it anymore?”

He said that the fabrications circulated by western leaders about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government aim at frightening the Syrians or at launching attacks on Syria such as the US aggression on al-Sh’airat Airbase. He added that Syria got used to threats by France, Britain and some western countries and the International community also got used to the fact that promoters of such threats are liars.

“We fear no threats. Syria keeps steadfast and it is achieving more victories in the battle against terrorism,” said Mikdad, pointing out that by threatening Syria, enemies of Syria give assurances to terrorist organizations and encourage them to continue killing Syrian civilians and they try to prevent the collapse of the scheme, which has been prepared by the west since 2011 within the framework of the so-called “Arab Spring” to change the regimes that are enemies to Israel.

Hamda Mustafa