Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Geneva, SANA – Speaker of the People’s Assembly Mohammad Jihad al-Laham said the road to an effective combating of terrorism passes through cooperation with the Syrian government and army.
Al-Laham was addressing the 131st Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly currently held in Geneva.
Countering terrorism starts with confronting extremist thought and implementing the UN Security Council’s counter-terrorism resolutions, he added.
“Combating terrorism requires a halt to instigative media campaigns that spew violence, hatred, and extremism, as well as cooperation with the countries which are subject more than others to terrorism, and helping them defeat it,” he said.
It also needs employing political solutions for domestic problems by urging the parties concerned to engage in dialogue instead of arming opposition groups and instigating violence and extremism, al-Laham went on to say.
He said that the Syrian and Iraqi governments have the right to come up with means for combating terrorism, knowing that the Syrians and Iraqis have been at the receiving end of atrocities committed by ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and the Islam Army terrorist organizations.
The Assembly Speaker pointed to Syria’s successes in the war against terrorism, saying “Syria could have routed terrorism entirely had it not been for the support provided to these organizations by well-known sources.”
He urged the countries involved in backing terrorists in Syria to reverse their course, warning that their approach “will eventually backfire on the supporters and funders of terrorist organizations.”
Commenting on the airstrikes launched by the US-led coalition against ISIS positions, al-Laham said that some of its participant countries have helped terrorism to emerge in Syria and Iraq.
Al-Laham played down the effectiveness of the airstrikes in eliminating terrorism, something which is acknowledged by US administration officials.
“The Coalition’s airstrikes won’t destroy ISIS as conceded by US officials. They have not rolled back its advance on Ain al-Arab city,” the Parliament Speaker said, describing the campaign as “media propaganda led by the United States.”
He indicated that some of the coalition’s countries have been fighting Syria for over four years under the slogan of freedom and democracy, adding “with their initial endeavors dead in the water and their intentions exposed, these countries have switched gears to fighting the Syrian state under the pretext of fighting terrorism.”
The Parliament Speaker warned that the same countries seek to create new armed groups under the claim of training and arming a “moderate Syrian opposition” that can follow through on the mission that the terrorist organizations failed to carry out.
Any such procedures would constitute a violation of the international law and the UN Security Council resolutions, he warned, calling for taking action to stop them.
Suggesting a course of action for “those willing to help the Syrian people,” al-Laham called for backing national reconciliations that the Syrian government is initiating in volatile areas as “the best way towards a comprehensive national dialogue among the Syrian people on the Syrian land.”
He urged all countries and regional and international organizations to join forces for wiping out terrorism, also calling on the countries that host Syrian refugees to “treat them in the humane manner they deserve, and not blackmail them.”
He also urged these countries to help lift the embargo that deprives the Syrians of medicine, food, and fuel.
Finally, al-Laham hoped that IPU will move to back the track of political solutions and national reconciliations in Syria, calling for spurning attempts to breach Syria’s sovereignty.
MPs from across the world will decide on actions they can take to help tackle growing threats to global peace, security, and human rights, including violence against women, as well as elect a new president of the IPU during the Organization’s 131st Assembly in Geneva.
744 MPs from 141 countries, including 104 Speakers and Deputy Speakers of Parliament, are attending the IPU Assembly.
Manal Ismael / Hazem Sabbagh
