Russia: U.S. continues to support terrorists in Syria

NEW YORK, Jan.26, (ST)- The Russian mission to the United Nations has asserted that Washington continues to support the terrorists of “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” [HTS]

“Pretending to care about the Syrians, held against their will by the  terrorists in Idlib as a human shield, the US diplomacy uses the taxpayer money to effectively support the militants,” the Russian mission said. “At the same time, the US spares no efforts to rebrand the Idlib cutthroats and present them as an alternative to the government in Damascus. By reinforcing the [terrorists’] positions, Washington shoots itself in the foot, while stating its commitment to the territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic,” the Russian Permanent Mission to the UN said in a commentary on the US mission’s report on Wednesday, according to TASS.

The mission noted that the US occupied not only a part of Syria near At-Tanf but the entire Syrian northeast — the oil-rich and fertile region.

“By presenting itself as a ‘key donor,’ the US must consistent in its position and leave the illegally occupied territories, return the fertile lands across Euphrates River to Damascus and stop robbing the country by exporting the oil, extracted in Syria’s northeast, with truck convoys every month,” the commentary said.

It called on the US to fulfill its obligations regarding the operation of the cross-border humanitarian aid delivery mechanism for Syria.

It noted that “the UN Security Council resolution means the fulfillment of a number of obligations, primarily by the United States after Russia fulfilled its promise and agreed to extend the work of cross-border mechanism for another 6 months…but the American side has shown itself unconvincingly during the past six months…therefore the remaining six months is an excellent opportunity to rectify the situation.”

In July of last year, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution to extend the (Cross-Border Aid Delivery Mechanism) for Syria through one border crossing for a period of six months, with the extension to take place later for another six months ending on July 10, 2022, based on a report by the UN Secretary General on transparency in aid delivery operations and progress of cross-line access.

Syria considered that the Western countries focused their efforts only on extending this mechanism that serves their agendas reiterating their indifference to the suffering of the Syrian people and their continued targeting of Syria through this mechanism and their insistence on violating Syria’s sovereignty and besieging its people.

“The United States would rather spread lies about Ukraine than express its support for Security Council Resolution 2202, which approved the Minsk Accords package of measures as an international legal basis for resolving the crisis and imposed on Kiev a number of obligations it had been evading for seven years,” the commentary read.

It added that instead of holding dialogue and searching for common ground, the United States is adopting a devastating mistake by expressing biased positions that have nothing to do with reality. It also pointed out that Washington and NATO flooded Ukraine with weapons.

Basma Qaddour