Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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New York, SANA – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari dismissed having the Saudi and Qatari delegations alternately submitting draft resolutions criticizing the human rights situation in Syria as an “odd paradox” .
Addressing a committee discussing a Saudi-Qatari proposed draft resolution on human rights in Syria, al-Jaafari found the demeanor of the delegations of Saudi Arabia and Qatar oddly paradoxical particularly after hundreds of reports and statements have divulged the scale of involvement of the two regimes and their Turkish ally in fueling violence, bringing international terrorism into Syria and hindering a political solution to the crisis in it.
He cited reports published by the American TV channel CNN last June and October documenting the role of the Saudi and Qatari regimes in supporting and funding the terrorist organizations in Syria, including those with links to al-Qaeda such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
He also referred to reports that prove the strong relations between the Qatari regime and Israel in terms of backing Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria and the abductions of UN personnel in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan.
In the same context, the senior diplomat recalled statements made by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on the involvement of the Turkish and Saudi regimes and other Gulf countries in supporting and funding terrorism in Syria.
On October 2, Biden blamed America’s allies in the region – Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – for allowing the rise of ISIS, saying they supported extremists with money and weapons in their eagerness to bring a “regime change” in Syria.
Al-Jaafari also reminded of the report issued by the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization according to which Saudi Arabia was ranked second among many countries in terms of sending terrorists to Syria.
The London-based Centre suggested that the total number of foreign fighters in Syria was between 11,000 and 12,000, with only about 3,000 of them from the West. Of the remainder, Tunisians make up the largest group (estimated at about 3,000), followed by those from Saudi Arabia (about 2,500) and Morocco (1,500).
Al-Jaafari went on saying that Interpol officials have confirmed the facilitations provided by Turkey for thousands of foreign terrorists to enter Syria.
Al-Jaafari stressed that those who proposed the new draft resolution on Syria “are working in a systematic way to undermine the values of tolerance” in Syria have the “abominable Saudi laws applied in it, “laws which discriminate against Saudis on the basis of skin color, race, sect or belief.”
He referred to a 100-page report issued by the Gulf Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington as an example that shows the violations of Saudi citizens’ rights in the eastern areas of the kingdom.
Now that the UN member states and the officials of the UN Secretariat “have been provided with enough information and international and UN reports that prove the real intentions of those who proposed the draft resolution, al-Jaafari called upon the member states to vote against it.
He pointed out that the Saudi and Qatari delegations have received phone calls from the Ambassadors of the US, England and Turkey urging them to submit the draft resolution.
Rasha Milhem/Ruaa al-Jazaeri/Haifa Said
