Sabbagh: Some countries follow double standards in dealing with global terrorist threats to serve their interests

New York (ST): Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, reiterated that some countries follow double standards and selective policies in dealing with global terrorist threats and exploiting them to serve their narrow interests, pointing out that these countries’ attempts to reproduce terrorist organizations and whitewash their image will not obscure the fact that these organizations continue to be terrorist and owe their existence and support to these countries

In this context, Sabbagh called in a statement presented to the General Assembly on item 123 entitled “The Seventh Periodic Review of the United Nations Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Strategy” to work on taking serious and resolute measures to ensure the prevention of foreign terrorist flows and to hold the governments of the countries operating them accountable and to avoid using terrorism as a tool to serve the foreign policies of some member states and to target specific countries.

Sabbagh added, “My country is well aware that the methods of confronting terrorism vary in nature and require permanent reviews of strategies that address the terrorist threat in the short, medium and long term,” stressing that national legislation and international instruments represent the cornerstone in confronting the threat of terrorism, but the practical application of these texts represents a challenge.

The permanent representative of Syria reiterated the priority of the national ownership and leadership of efforts to combat terrorism in cooperation with the United Nations and its relevant bodies to ensure respect for the sovereignty and independence of states and not to use the fight against terrorism as a pretext to interfere in the internal affairs of states or launch aggression against them or occupy parts of their territories based on a distorted interpretation of the Charter The United Nations, especially Article 51 thereof, the provisions of international law, international humanitarian law, and resolutions of international legitimacy related to combating terrorism.

Sabbagh went on to say that given the unprecedented and long-term global terrorism that Syria has suffered in which countries, governments, financial institutions, and intelligence services participated, and within the framework of the tremendous efforts made by the Syrian government in confronting this multi-form pattern of global terrorism, we have had great experience in this field, which other states can benefit from and build on in the context of any current or subsequent reviews of the United Nations Comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

Sabbagh indicated that the tendency of some member states to carry out an individual, illegal and illegitimate classification of certain countries within the so-called “state sponsors of terrorism” lists, or to form illegal alliances under the pretext of combating terrorism without authorization from the United Nations or the permission of the concerned state, cannot give any kind of credibility for the claims of those countries in that they are  fighting terrorism.

Sabbagh concluded by stressing that the Syrian government will continue to exercise its sovereign right and national duty aimed at eliminating terrorism in all its forms, drying up its sources, and ensuring the security, safety and prosperity of the Syrian people.

K.Q.