Moscow: Some Western countries use humanitarian aid to Syria for political purposes

The Russian Foreign Ministry warned against politicizing the issue of delivering humanitarian aid to Syria, noting that this mechanism is being used by some Western countries to realize political purposes in contradiction with the principle of respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.

“The situation in Syria has changed radically during the six years since laying out the  mechanism of the delivery of humanitarian aid.  The Syrian government has restored  the largest part of the country’s territory and it is actively contributing to providing assistance to its citizens. So Russia believes that it is pointless to extend this temporary and emergency measure, which is manifested in the mechanism of delivering humanitarian aid indefinitely,” according to a statement released at the Ministry’s website on Wednesday. .

The statement pointed out that the deliberations that took place in the UN Security Council on the eleventh of July in this regard showed that there are problems among Western countries with regard to respecting the norms and principles of international humanitarian law. These countries worked to extend the delivery mechanism of humanitarian aid and to continue the imposition of  unilateral coercive measures on Syria in order to increase the suffering of the Syrians, in contrast to the UN Secretary-General’s call to alleviate this in light of the spread of Corona Virus pandemic.

The Russian Foreign Ministry statement expressed the hope that the humanitarian aid mechanism will not be politicized and will be delivered during the next stage to all regions in Syria in coordination with its government.

Ambassador Hossam El-Din Ala, the permanent representative of Syria to the United Nations in Geneva, has recently confirmed that the recent insistence of Western countries in the Security Council to deliver humanitarian aid to the areas controlled by terrorists through illegal border crossings confirms the extent of politicization pursued by these countries.

Ambassador Ala expressed the Syrian government’ commitment to meet the humanitarian needs of its citizens throughout the Syrian territory and to facilitate the delivery of aid from Syria through legitimate border crossings, in conformity with the decisions governing the work of the United Nations humanitarian agencies.

Inas Abdulkareem