Al-Jafari: Syria’s Sovereignty, Independence and Territorial Integrity Are Red Line 

New York (SaebPress)-Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jafari on Tuesday stressed that Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity are red line, “the Syrian people, who offered the world the first alphabet, have all over the years been able to solve their internal problems and crises by themselves and will never accept any form of foreign interference in their homeland Syria” Al-Jafari said

Al-Jafari recalled how in the late 50s and the beginning of the 60s “when we were at the preliminary school we used to recite the Algerian anthem instead of the Syrian national anthem…We were happy to donate our pocket money to help the Arab liberation movements in the Gulf against the British colonialism.”

“That was before the oil boom, when Arabism was different in its concept from the way some look at it today,” he noted.

He said that the Arab people would have wished that the presence of the Arab League (AL) Secretary General and the Chairman of the current session of the AL Council to the Security Council would have been to demand the Security Council to shoulder its responsibilities to end the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories and to halt the ‘Israeli’ escalated acts of killing and settlement activities.

“It is so strange to see some of the AL members restoring to the Security Council against Syria that has always been ready to sacrifice the dearest for the sake of defending the Arab issues,” al-Jafari added.

“They are very mistaken those who think that the countries I am talking about, which have always stood against the just Arab issues inside and outside the Security Council, show this enthusiasm for the Arab League out of their respect for it and its decisions or out of their keenness on the interest of Syria and the Syrian people,” said the Syrian Representative. “The clear truth is that this enthusiasm came in the same antagonistic context towards all the legitimate Arab issues,” he continued.

He considered that the Arab League’s recent decision to head to the Security Council is a kind of circumventing the success of the Arab monitoring mission and an attempt to pass over its report because it came contrary to the plot of some Arab and non-Arab parties who falsely claim keenness on the Arab role in resolving the crisis in Syria.

“This hall today re-echoes almost more than 60 vetoes to prevent draft resolutions on settling the Arab-Israeli conflict in accordance with the resolutions of this highly-regarded Council…What is new today about the AL referring of its unjust decisions against Syria to the Security Council in Syria’s absence and without consultation with its leadership, in a violation of the AL charter and in preparation for direct aggressive interference in Syria’s internal affairs, is that the AL decision meets the plans and interests of the non-Arab countries that are aimed at destroying Syria and disrupting its security and stability because Syria rejects to be a subordinate country or a country of incomplete sovereignty and insists on the independence of its decision and on preserving its people’s interests and security.

“Syria considers the decision made at the AL Council’s recent meeting a violation of Syria’s national sovereignty, a flagrant interference in its internal affairs and a gross transgression of the goals for which the AL was founded and of the eighth provision of its charter,” said al-Jafari.

He stressed that Syria rejects any decision outside the framework of the Arab Work Plan it agreed upon and the protocol signed with the Arab League.

He found it strangely paradoxical how the AL had first requested the Syrian government to extend the Arab monitoring mission for another month, a request that Damascus immediately agreed, only for the AL to later contradict itself by ignoring the mission’s report, working on taking the crisis in an Arab country to the Security Council and suspending its mission.

The representative of Syria blasted the strange contradiction when some Oligarchy States present draft resolutions for democracy, human rights, power rotation while they themselves don’t have even a constitution, or electoral system and never practice democracy.

“The wild tendency of some Western countries to interfere in our internal and external affairs by all means is not new or accidental, but it is a systematic and continued approach since Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916 and Balfour Declaration in 1917, and through the unlimited support to Israel in its aggressive polices and its occupation of the Arab territories,” said al-Jafari.

Ambassador al-Jafari voiced astonishment over the Arab league deliberate disregard of the Arab Monitors’ report about the ongoing in Syria, especially the points which highlight the destructive role of armed groups in attacking the Syrian citizens and security forces.

Ambassador al-Jafari wondered about the French Policy cool response to what the Arab Monitors report said that the French Journalist, Gilles Jacquier , was killed by mortars shells from the opposition in Syria.

The Syrian representative cited some examples of the already taken Syrian reform measures and time-framed near to take place measures including new constitution, political plurality and parliamentary elections, welcoming the Russian initiative for sponsoring Syrian dialogue in Moscow.

He called upon the Arab and non-Arab parties that are contributing to inflaming the Syrian crisis to reconsider their policies, stop the shedding of the Syrian blood and support the national dialogue and the political reform program.

Ambassador al-Jafari, in a potent silencing response to the Qatari representative accusations, cited some news reports by western media that Qatar and Saudi Arabia finance the smuggling of arms to Syria, calling on Qatar to stop its al-Jazeera’s distortions and lies, and calling on other neighboring countries to stop hosting the armed opposition, which bomb oil refineries and gas pipelines and explode railways, on its territories.

” Bin Jessem, the Qatari Premier, talks to you to inform you of what the League of Arab States, decided; such a League, however, does not exist without Syria; and we would never allow any body to take a decision about our future in our absence or on our behalf.” underscored al-Jafari.

”In Damascus still we have a quarter called ‘al-Hariqia’ , -the destroyed by fire- because French forces in the late 40s of the last century bombed the quarter with artillery and warplanes killing thousands of civilians,” al-Jafari added reminding the French of their colonial past not to mention the thousands of the Algerians massacred.

Al-Jafari expressed Syria’s appreciation of South Africa over its wise leadership of the Security Council during this month, reiterating Syria’s pride in the victory of the people of South Africa and the peoples of the African continent over the policies of discrimination and apartheid, wondering about the stance of some countries that are now speaking of democracy and human rights and about which side they took during the struggle of South Africa.

SaebPress