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Syrian
FM to UN: 'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'
The
Syrian government is fighting against “terrorist groups from 83
countries” as part of its “constitutional right” to protect the
country’s people, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the UN
General Assembly in New York
RT,
30 September, 2013
In
his speech to the UN Assembly, Muallem on Monday dismissed the
definition of the Syrian conflict as a civil war, saying that the
Syrian government is engaged in a “war against terrorism
that recognizes no values, nor justice, nor equality, and disregards
any rights or laws.”
“Confronting
this terror in my country requires the international community to act
in accordance with relevant resolutions on countering terrorism,
particularly the UNSC resolution No. 1373 of 2001,”
he said.
Muallem
described some Al-Qaeda-linked militants who eat human hearts and
dismember people that are still alive, sending limbs out to family
members.
"The
scenes of murder, manslaughter and eating human hearts were shown on
TV screens, but did not touch blind consciences,"
Moallem said. "There are
innocent civilians whose heads are put on the grill just because they
violate the extremist ideology and deviant views of Al-Qaeda. In
Syria...there are murderers who dismember human bodies into pieces
while still alive and send their limbs to their families, just
because those citizens are defending a unified and secular Syria."
The
Syrian Foreign Minister said that “terrorists
from more than 83 countries are engaged in the killing of our people
and our army under the appeal of global Takfiri jihad.”
Terrorist
groups, including those linked to Al-Qaeda, who are violating Syrian
people’s human rights “on
a daily basis,”
he stressed. Any Syrians who do not share the extremist ideology risk
being “killed, slaughtered,”
with the women also taken as “captives
on the basis of perverted concepts of religion that have nothing to
do with Islam."
'Foreign
countries supply rebels with chemical agents'
“We
are the ones who were targeted by poisonous gases in Khan Al-Assal,
near Aleppo,”
Muallem asserted, saying that Syria asked the UN inspectors to
include in its mandate the ability to determine who used chemical
weapons, but that it was omitted due to pressure from the US, the UK
and France.
Syria
had “waited for five months”
for the UN chemical inspectors to arrive, and even before the
completion of their work “certain
states began beating the drums of war,”
Muallem said. He added that Syria was committed to fully implement
the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention and cooperate
closely with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW).
Syria’s
top diplomat went on to question whether those countries “supplying
terrorists”
with weapons would “abide by
their legal commitments,”
saying there “remains the
challenge”
that they would not do so.
Muallem
then accused “regional and
Western countries that are well known to all of us”
of supplying chemical agents to “terrorists
who used poisonous gases”
in Syria.
Syria
calls for “necessary and
prompt measures to compel those well-known countries that finance,
arm, train and provide a safe haven and passage for terrorists coming
from different countries of the world,”
Muallem said.
'Geneva-2
talks should start without preconditions'
At
the same time, Muallem called on the United States, as well as
European and other countries, “to
refrain from adopting immoral, unilateral economic measures that
contradict the rules of international law and the principles of free
trade.”
He
called on the US to stop “all
unilateral coercive measures”
imposed on Syria, Venezuela, Belarus, Iran and North Korea, as well
to lift the economic blockade of Cuba.
Syria
has “repeatedly announced
that she embraces a political solution of its crisis,”
Muallem said, saying that now it is time for “those
who claim to support”
such a solution “to stop all
hostile practices and policies against Syria, and to head to Geneva
without preconditions.”
President
Assad’s government has said it is ready to take part in a so-called
“Geneva-2” peace conference – UN-backed talks with the
participation of the Syrian government, the Syrian opposition,
Russia, the US and other regional players – called to implement the
Geneva Communiqué of June 30, 2012.
However, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), which has been proposed to represent the opposition, demanded that Assad would not be part of a transitional government discussed at the talks – a precondition Damascus rejects.
Despite SNC President Ahmad Jarba’s recent letter to the UN saying that the coalition “reaffirms its willingness” to take part in the Geneva-2 conference, the UN and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is still “having trouble gathering the opposition” in Geneva, Syrian FM Muallem said in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Saturday.
However, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), which has been proposed to represent the opposition, demanded that Assad would not be part of a transitional government discussed at the talks – a precondition Damascus rejects.
Despite SNC President Ahmad Jarba’s recent letter to the UN saying that the coalition “reaffirms its willingness” to take part in the Geneva-2 conference, the UN and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is still “having trouble gathering the opposition” in Geneva, Syrian FM Muallem said in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Saturday.
