Syria Counting on UNSC Role in Attaining International Peace and Security – al-Jaafari

New York, (ST)- Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, Syria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations has stressed that Syria is counting on the role of the UN Security Council, as provided in its charter, in preventing the eruption of conflicts in the world and in attaining the international peace and security which are necessary to achieve development in all countries of the world.

Al-Jaafari, who  made the remarks during a UNSC session dedicated to discuss the item called “International Peace and Security..Root Causes of Conflicts”, condemned the terrorist attacks taking place in different parts of the world and called for judging the perpetrators, supporters and financiers of these criminal acts.

He expressed condolences to families of the victims of terrorist blats in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Russia, France and different part of the world.

The Syrian UN Representative inquired why the Security Council is being pushed to discuss some development issues that are not of its prerogatives under its charter, recalling the content of the development agenda document for the year 2030, particularly items Nos. 47 and 82 which provide for the exclusive mandate of the UN General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and the high-level political forum for development over the follow-up and review of this agenda.

 “The Syrian delegation doesn’t support the policy based on selecting the goal No. 16 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS) and linking it  to the issue of preventing the eruption of conflicts which is one of the UNSC’s specializations,” said al-Jaafari.

He added that “the Syrian delegation’s insistence on not to involve the Security Council in development issues starts from certain considerations such as avoiding the loss of international efforts to attain common goals and reactivating the exclusive mandate of the Security Council to preserve international peace and security and prevent the eruption of conflicts.

“Reactivating the Security Council’s role in preserving peace and security in the world can be realized in taking some important steps like the immediate and full implementation of the Security Council resolutions, which have been vetoed for many years, such as those relating to the occupied Syrian Golan, the occupied Palestine and the disarming of Israel’s nuclear weapon,” according to al-Jaafari.

He pointed out that among the steps that need to be taken to reactivate the Security Council’s role are respecting countries’ sovereignty and halting interference in countries’ internal affairs by some influential states which give themselves the right to grant or remove the legitimacy of some countries without taking the will of the peoples of these countries into consideration.

He urged judging the governments which adopted unilateral decisions to interfere in other countries’ affairs and launch aggressions that led to the spread of violence and extremism in these countries and in different parts of the world like in Libya after NATO military invasion,

Al-Jaafrai asserted that the flagrant interference of some countries in Syria’s internal affairs since 2011 aiming to undermine the Syrian state through using “the terrorist revolutionaries” or through imposing economic sanctions has caused the loss of the decades-long development and stability Syria has experienced before 2011.

The long list of urgent issues the Security Council should focus on instead of discussing development issues includes respecting and implementing the UNSC’s resolutions, particularly No. 2170, 2178 and 2199 which prohibit all forms of supporting or funding  the terrorists in Syria and which provide for putting an end to buying the stolen Syrian oil and artifacts. In addition, the council should concentrate on the disastrous repercussions of the unilateral American and European economic sanctions imposed on Syria on the humanitarian situation in the country, according to al-Jaafari

The Syrian diplomat affirmed that the continuity of conflicts around the world and the lack of security and stability and the spread of unemployment, poverty, malnutrition and disasters have been caused by the absence of the political will of influential UNSC member states to do their obligations, particularly towards the developing countries.

Hamda Mustafa