Equipo Nizkor - Letter from Syria in response to Qatar claims on the Syrian regime.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2016/79

Distr.: General
28 January 2016
Original: English

Identical letters dated 26 January 2016 from the Charge d'affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

I have the honour to attach herewith identical letters dated 25 January 2016 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council (see annex).

It would be highly appreciated if the present letter and its annex were circulated as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Mounzer Mounzer
Chargé d'affaires a.i.

Annex to the identical letters dated 26 January 2016 from the Charge d'affaires a.i. of the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

[Original: Arabic]

Identical letters dated 25 January 2016 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my country's Government, I should like to inform you that the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic rejects the spurious claims set out in the letter dated 6 January 2016 from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Qatari regime addressed to the President of the Security Council. Those claims are part of the Minister's miserable efforts to cover up the direct support that the Qatari regime has consistently provided to the armed terrorist groups, so that they can attack the security and stability of the State and terrorize its people.

It is risible that the representative of the Qatari regime should transmit letters that are full of obfuscation and lies regarding Syria in order to turn the facts inside out. The claim that the Syrian Government is starving its people is particularly ludicrous, because everyone is now aware of the role of the Qatari regime in the killing of Syrian citizens and of its support for terrorism.

For more than four years, the Qatari regime has provided every form of support to armed terrorist groups in Syria. Those groups have invaded the peaceful cities and villages of Syria and besieged them from within, killing peaceable civilians and destroying public and private property. They have forced civilians to flee to areas that are controlled by the State or to seek refuge in other States, in order to save their lives and the lives of their families. As for those civilians who have been unable to do that, the terrorists have used them as human shields and committed the most horrific crimes against them, including depriving them of food and medicine. Moreover, this regime paid cash ransoms to Nusrah Front terrorists and other terrorist organizations for the release of members of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force and nuns who had been abducted from the city of Ma'lulah. Such conduct clearly violates Security Council resolutions 2133 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2253 (2015).

The Qatari regime has also strived to undermine any effort to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis by providing direct support to terrorist groups, including the Nusrah Front, which is affiliated with Al-Qaida. The Qatari regime has attempted in vain to whitewash the record of the Nusrah Front and make it appear as though it were the moderate opposition by marshalling all of its media resources to promote that organization. The Al-Jazeera channel, which broadcasts its programmes from Doha, hosted Abu Mahmud al-Jawlani, the amir of the so-called Nusrah Front, an organization that appears in the lists of the Security Council, and attempted to present him as the leader of a moderate opposition group that calls for openness and tolerance. The Qatari channel Al-Jazeera is the only news channel that conducted several exclusive television interviews with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leaders of Al-Qaida. Not content with that, the Qatari regime's Minister for Foreign Affairs, in an interview that appeared in the 11 May 2015 edition of the French newspaper Le Monde, said that cooperation with the Nusrah Front and its affiliated groups was an unavoidable reality. This is a clear admission of the Qatari regime's support for that terrorist organization and a flagrant violation of the resolutions of the Security Council, including resolutions 1373 (2001), 1624 (2005) and 2170 (2014).

No one cares more for the Syrian people than the Syrian Government. Neither Qatar nor any other enemy of the Syrian people can surpass it in that regard, including with respect to the delivery of assistance to hot spots controlled by armed terrorist groups. The Syrian Government is making tangible efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance to all persons in need in all areas, without discrimination, including Madaya. The Qatari regime has been attempting to mislead the public about the situation in that city.

Those who are desirous of helping persons who are in need in Syria should, above all, stop supporting terrorist groups in word and deed and should implement the Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism. There was no humanitarian suffering in a number of Syrian regions until the arrival of terrorist groups that are supported by several well-known regimes, led by the Al Thani regime of Qatar. That regime's sponsorship of terrorism has led to the starvation of large segments of the Syrian people. That same regime has also misled the Security Council and the public at the international level with regard to the issue of humanitarian assistance.

The call of the Qatari regime's representative to implement Security Council resolutions and apply the principle of accountability is risible. The primary cause of the ongoing suffering of Syrians and the development and worsening of the humanitarian crisis has been the Qatari regime's failure to comply with the resolutions of the Security Council on counter-terrorism, including resolutions 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2253 (2015); its continuing violation of those resolutions through its support of terrorism and its use of terrorism as a foreign policy tool; and the lack of a clear means of holding it accountable for its violations of those resolutions.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic calls on the Security Council to put an end to the protection being provide by certain States to the corrupt Qatari regime. It also calls on the Council to take action immediately against that regime for its support of armed terrorist groups in Syria, in accordance with the Security Council resolutions on counter-terrorism, including resolution 2253 (2015).

I should be grateful if the present letter could be issued as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Bashar Ja'afari
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

Information
Bookshop \| Donate Derechos \| Equipo Nizkor

28Jan16

Letter from Syria in response to Qatar claims on the Syrian regime