YouSaid · the spoken record

Jaafari

lines on the record: 2,603
first: 2006-07-21
most recent: 2019-11-22
sittings or episodes: 185
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We have been also documenting the human and material losses of civilians in the city of Damascus as a result of being targeted by terrorists groups in eastern Ghouta. However, in its statements and appeals the Secretariat has no problem ignoring the suffering of 8 million people in Damascus. It has not hesitated to participate in the misleading campaign launched by some States to protect a few thousand members of armed terrorists groups in eastern Ghouta. They are sacrificing 8 million civilians in Damascus to protect a few thousand terrorists in eastern Ghouta. This is scene in short. Both international and United Nations sources are spreading news of a stifling siege on eastern Ghouta. That is not consistent with the indisputable reality on the ground.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Although we have sent hundreds of letters to the Secretary-General, the President ofthe Security Council and specialized United Nations agencies specialized in counter-terrorism and the prohibition of chemical weapons, we are sure that some at the United Nations will not hesitate to believe that story and blame the Syrian Government. That is simply because certain agendas in the Organization compel some to join in the extortion of the Syrian Arab Republic and its allies that are fighting terrorism on behalf of all those present. For over two months now, the Syrian Government has been sending letters almost daily to the Secretary- General and the President of the Security Council documenting the number of missiles used, which have amounted in the past few weeks to almost 1,200.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“That is but one example of some misleading reports issued by the Secretariat. We are convinced that those abhorrent practices will not stop and that some United Nations officials will ignore the serious information that we have conveyed to them about armed terrorist groups fabricating the story that the Syrian Government used toxic chemical substances against civilians in eastern Ghouta. Those groups are training some of their members to pretend that they have been exposed to toxic substances. Of course, those scenes are broadcast by well-known networks and correspondents of Mr. Lowcock, and the Syrian Arab Army is blamed for it.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“They are directly involved in distorting facts, manipulating figures, using insidious phrases and terminology, and depending on unreliable sources in their statements and reports. Of course, I cannot list all of those scandals today. I will only remind the Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Fact-Finding Mission report (S/20l7/567), issued in June 2017. The report states that among the open sources on which it relied was the testimony of British doctor Shajul Islam. For those who do not know who Mr. Islam is, he is a foreign terrorist fighting for the Al-Nusra Front in Idlib. He was convicted in the United Kingdom and was not allowed to practice medicine there as he was involved in crimes related to terrorism, such as kidnapping British journalist John Cantlie.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Damascus is the oldest populated city in history. It is seeing destruction, death and sorrow every day as a result of missiles, mortars and rockets launched by armed terrorist groups operating in eastern Ghouta. These terrorist groups - the Islamic State in Iraq and the Sham, the Al-Nusra Front and affiliated groups - are designated as terrorist groups in the Security Council. Today, 8 million people live in Damascus, among them hundreds of thousands who fled armed groups that attacked their villages and their homes in many parts of Syria, including eastern Ghouta. The United Nations today is going through a professional and moral crisis that is unfathomable. High-level Secretariat officials see no harm in adopting the positions of Governments that sponsor terrorism in my country.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Would we have seen a draft resolution calling for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the moderate armed British opposition? Would we have seen statements by high-level Secretariat officials, such as Mr. Lowcock, calling for stopping the fight against armed groups that they describe as non-State armed opposition groups? Unfortunately, that is how United Nations documents refer to terrorists nowadays - non-State armed opposition groups. Of course, those are all hypothetical scenarios that might seem far-fetched. However, that is the reality in Syria. It is the tragedy that we are seeing in Syrian cities every day, including the city of Damascus and its inhabitants. It is a bitter reality that the Syrian Government is facing as a result of the erroneous approaches adopted by the United Nations and the positions of some of its Member States.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Let us imagine for a moment that hundreds of terrorists had used the Bois de Boulogne as a centre to target civilians in Paris, launching dozens of missiles every day. Would we have seen a draft resolution calling for a humanitarian truce to give the moderate armed French opposition the opportunity to regain its power and launch missiles targeting Paris? Let us imagine for a moment that hundreds of terrorists had used Central Park here in New York as a centre to target civilians in Manhattan, and had launched dozens of missiles every day. Would we have seen a draft resolution calling for the medical evacuation of the moderate armed American opposition? Let us imagine for a moment that hundreds of terrorists had used Hyde Park as a centre to target civilians in London, launching dozens ofmissiles daily.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Some Council members - and I specifically mean the United States of America, the United Kingdom and France - would like to deprive the Syrian Government of its constitutional and sovereign right to defending its territories and people, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations back when we had wise founding fathers and international law and as guaranteed by all United Nations resolutions on counter-terrorism. Today, I have heard references to the draft resolution contained in document S/2018/l46, on humanitarian issues. The penholders, Kuwait and Sweden, have been working on it for several weeks. I thank them for their efforts. However, those efforts are deeply flawed. The penholders did not coordinate with the Syrian delegation at all. They did not even ask to hear my country's view on the draft resolution that concerns it.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“This meeting is particularly important, as some actors - especially the United States of America and the so-called international coalition - have moved from the stage of aggression by proxy through their support for terrorism to the stage of direct aggression. Those actors have recruited terrorists from all four corners of the world. They call them jihadists and send them to Syria. Whenever terrorists have failed, those actors have been there - militarily, politically, through the media and the United Nations - to intervene in order to achieve what their terrorist proxies failed to achieve. Let us be clear.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“We thank the delegation of the Russian Federation for convening this meeting to give us the opportunity to once again present the reality ofthe suffering ofcivilians as a result of the practices of armed terrorist groups or, as some call them, moderate armed opposition groups. Over the past seven years, they have been sowing death and destruction wherever they have operated. They have used civilians as human shields. They have targeted hospitals and schools, turning them into military centres. They have hurled missiles and rockets indiscriminately at residential and populated areas. Of course, as the Permanent Representative of France said before leaving this meeting, all of this is a form of resistance. He referred to the terrorists who bombard Damascus as the "resistance" that the Syrian regime is trying to suppress.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“As the Council is aware, every time a Security Council meeting is held to discuss the Syrian situation, there is a massacre here and a suicide bombing there, as well as the killing of civilians in some Syrian cities. We have seen not dozens, but rather hundreds of massacres over the past seven years. Mr. Lowcock did not get this information the way he gets messages from what he calls humanitarian workers in eastern Ghouta who know about international humanitarian law. Mr. Lowcock did not solicit the views of the Syrian Government, which we have expressed in hundreds of letters sent to him and to the Council. All those who in this meeting have used the word "regime" to refer to my country are neither objective nor impartial. They reveal their countries' involvement in the ongoing terrorist crisis in my country.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): Once again, I reiterate that we were not aware of note S/2017/507. I believe that this act is unjust and raises many issues to which I already intended to refer in my statement. I hope that everyone will be patient enough to listen to the statement I shall make on behalf of the Government of my country. I shall not deliver a personal statement. All speakers have spoken on behalf of their Governments, and I shall do the same. I encourage all members to listen carefully to what I have to say. As I talk here at this moment, hundreds of rockets and mortars are targeting the capital, Damascus. To date, they have injured 37 people, including six children, and led to a number of martyrs, including two children. That comes as no surprise.”
2018-02-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8186 (2018) · source
“This firm principle has been underscored by all relevant Security Council resolutions on the Syrian crisis. In conclusion, I would like to respond to my colleague of the United States, who called for peace in Syria and the implementation of resolution 2254 (2015), which was approved by her country. The resolution underscores the need to maintain the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of my country, Syria. Given that the resolution, which was approved by Washington, DC, underscores the need to maintain the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of my country, Syria, then why does the United States have forces in parts of my country? Has the United States of America not violated the very resolution that its delegation voted in favour ofin the Council, where it was unanimously adopted?”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“The resolution identified the tasks of the committee, and the participants in the Congress did not grant the Special Envoy to Syria any tutelage, delegation or authority to establish the constitutional committee. We in Syria are committed to the decision taken by the participants of the Congress. We are not concerned with any committee set up by foreign stakeholders, and will not deal with the results of its discussions or with anything related to it. The constitutional issue is a sovereign one. The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic remains committed to any political course that would end the bloodshed of the Syrian people, preserve my country's unity and independence, ensure its sovereignty and uphold the principle of the Syrian people to determine their own future through Syrian dialogue.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“The final statement represents a legitimate foundation for any political process, especially considering that it reflects national principles that have unanimous support in Syria and cannot be questioned - respect for Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity and the Syrian people's right to choose their own political and economic system and to maintain the Syrian Arab Army and armed forces. Given the principle that the Syrian people themselves must determine their future and their Constitution, participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi adopted a resolution to establish a constitutional committee. Consequently, the committee should be established according to the resolution voted on by the Syrians.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Two documents were adopted by an overwhelming majority, a final statement and a documentcalling forthe establishment ofa constitutional committee. I very much hope that the results that Sochi has produced will not be misinterpreted. The final statement, voted on and amended by the Syrian participants, was adopted unanimously by a broad majority through a democratic vote, based on the procedures established for the conference. It represents the basic pillar of the political process that will produce future dialogue and discussion, rooted in a solution that, assuming no foreign interference, will be entirely Syrian-led.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Most recently, it has stated that it is in Syria to fight Iran, Hizbullah and Russia. It has shifted its nuclear strategy and is considering the possibility of using nuclear weapons. Tomorrow, perhaps, it will tell us that it is in Syria to fight Martians from the Milky Way. The Syrian Government commends the Russian Federation's efforts, and specifically President Vladimir Putin's initiative in hosting the Syrian National Dialogue Conference in Sochi, which was yet another demonstration of the fact that the only way to achieve the aims of the political process in Syria is with Syrian oversight and with no foreign interference of any kind. The conference participants represented every sector of Syrian society - political, social, cultural, economic, and more.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“After that, it changed its mind, saying that it was in Syria to establish permanent military bases for safeguarding the strategic security of the United States and its allies. It later changed its mind once again, saying that the purpose of its presence in Syria was to establish armed militias in opposition to the Syrian Government and to enable them to exploit oil, gas, water and hydrocarbons and other resources in Syria - in other words, they wanted to establish a mini-State. Subsequently, it changed its thinking once more, stating that it would remain in Syria even if Da'esh was defeated. It said the same thing about Iraq, in order to justify the presence of their forces there. It has continued to change its mind, saying that it would leave Syria only if a political settlement was reached and the security of its allies was assured.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Those acts of aggression have resulted in dozens of civilian deaths and hundreds wounded, most of them women and children. These States have manipulated the principles of the Charter and violated its provisions when they talk about what they call besieged areas in eastern Ghouta and the Damascus countryside. They have forgotten that the residents of eastern Ghouta have been besieged from within by armed terrorist groups that are operating from there, using civilians as human shields and attempting to divert humanitarian convoys for the benefit of their supporters or to sell their supplies to desperate people at exorbitant prices, as happened in eastern Aleppo. At the time when the United States first decided unilaterally and illegitimately to intervene militarily in my country, Washington stated that its goal was fighting Da'esh.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“That is not true; it is false and misleading. It is not the first time that we have witnessed Israeli acts of aggression against the sovereignty of my country. Every member of the Council is aware that Israel continued to violate my country's sovereignty until one of its military planes was brought down by a Syrian rocket over occupied Palestine. Israel has consistently violated my country's sovereignty - and I would like to remind the Council and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations of that. The Council has been prevented from issuing statements condemning terrorist attacks by military organizations and their launching of more than 1,000 missiles and mortars, most recently targeting residential streets and suburbs, diplomatic missions, infrastructure and churches in Damascus and other cities.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“It is unfortunate that in his statement, to which I listened carefully, the Special Envoy made no mention of the occupation of various areas in my country by the United States and Turkey. He did say that there was a cross-border dispute in Afrin, but did not mention the illegitimate Turkish presence in my country and the attack on the Syrian city of Afrin. These States have manipulated the principles of the Charter and violated its provisions when they stayed silent, along with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, with regard to the repeated attacks by Israel's occupation forces on areas of the Syrian Arab Republic, the most recent being their act of aggression on 10 February, which my United States colleague has attempted to justify by claiming that it was a response to an Iranian drone's flight over occupied Palestinian territory.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“When the Syrian popular forces attacked Da'esh there, they were shelled by the United States Air Force. This is clearly yet another example of the Coalition's real mission and the role played by Washington, DC. in supporting the terrorist organization Da'esh, as it has done in the past, when the United States targeted Syrian Arab Army sites in Jabal Al-Thardah, near Deir ez-Zor, on 17 September 2016, enabling Da'esh to advance and occupy areas in Jabal Al-Thardah. The Coalition has deliberately destroyed 90 per cent of the Syrian city of Raqqa and has failed to uphold its commitment to defusing tens of thousands of mines left behind by Da'esh before abandoning the city and perpetrating terrorist acts under its two umbrellas - the United States, east of the Euphrates, and Turkey, north of Afrin.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“These countries have manipulated the principles of the Charter and breached its provisions when they tried to legitimize the recurring attacks perpetrated by the forces of what is called the International Coalition, led by the United States, the most recent of which was this illegitimate coalition's attack on 8 February on north- eastern Deir ez-Zor, against Syrian popular forces fighting terrorist Da'esh. This region, which is 30 kilometres wide and 65 kilometres long, and which was attacked by the Syrian popular forces against Da'esh, is under United States protection. Da'esh, which we defeated in Deir ez-Zor and Albuqmal, left these two cities under American protection and entrenched its presence in the region along the Syrian-Iraqi borders.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“One of the most important political magazines, the American Newsweek, published an article on 8 February written by Ian Wilkie entitled "Now Mattis Admits There Was No Evidence Assad Used Poison Gas on His People". The United States Secretary of Defence admits in that article that there is no proof of the use of toxic gas by the Syrian Government against it people, neither in Khan Shaykhun nor in Al-Ghouta in 2013. The French Minister of Defence, Florence Parly, also said yesterday, like her American counterpart, that there is no documented proof of the use of chlorine gas by the Syrian Government. Yet the words of the French Minister did not prevent her President from threatening to stage an aggression against my country, Syria, as the former United States Administration did.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Those countries have manipulated the principles of the Charter and violated its provisions by giving armed terrorist groups toxic chemicals to use against innocent civilians, subsequently manipulating the locales of such incidents and providing the investigation mechanism with concocting false information and fake testimony to accuse the Syrian Government in order to find an excuse to attack it. There are 136 letters in the dossier I hold here, sent to the Member States by the Syrian Government and containing very important information on the acquisition of chemical substances outside Syria by terrorists for their use in Syria. Those chemicals were indeed used in Syria and, as Ijust said, 136 letters were written about them. The Council has the letters, but only a few of its members were interested in reading them.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Today those mercenary terrorists who come from more than 100 states are simply called Syrian opposition. It seems that their DNA has been altered, and now they are just the Syrian moderate opposition. It is no secret that this support to the terrorists has cost those States $137 billion, as confirmed by the former Prime Minister of Qatar. It is also no secret that the former United States Ambassador to Syria confirmed that his country had spent $12 billion over the four years from 2014 to 2017 in order to change the regime in Syria, as officials in Washington, DC, want to do in Baghdad, Lybia, Syria, Venezuela and Iran. WikiLeaks documents have revealed the policies of successive American Administrations and shown that the United States Government has been opposed to my country since the American and British invasion ofIraq.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Such groups use civilians as human shields, target hospitals and schools and use them as military posts, camps and detention centres for the people they abduct. In the past 20 days, the city of Damascus has been subjected to 1,000 missile and mortar attacks. Some Council members have manipulated the principles of the United Nations Charter and violated its provisions by giving orders to their regional partners to invest all they can in media and materials to support armed terrorist groups, by issuing Wahabi fatwas for the shedding of Syrian blood, by opening their borders to facilitate the entry into Syria of tens of thousands of mercenary terrorists from more than 100 Member States of this Organization, by setting up training camps in neighbouring States and by calling these terrorists moderate Syrian opposition.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Certain influential countries on the Council - I mean the United States, the United Kingdom and France - have done all they can to destroy Syria, its people and its political standing, in order to settle scores with my country by manipulating the provisions of the Charter and violating its provisions so as to achieve their special agendas related to interference at the expense of the blood and the fate of the Syrian people. They have exploited the media, and unfortunately some United Nations employees distort reality about what is happening in Syria and to lie to international public opinion regarding the human suffering of Syrian civilians. With regard to the suffering of Syrian civilians, it has been inflicted on them by armed terrorist groups for seven years.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“The animosity of certain countries towards Syria derives from the principle of arrogance of power, rather than the rule of law. It reflects disrespect to the purposes and principles of the Charter and a total lack of serious accountability on the part of those who avail themselves of the law of the jungle. I would like to explain the unprecedented global terrorist war that my country has been subjected to over seven years, amid the silence of some, the complicity of some, the indifference of some, overlooking of some and conspiring of others.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“What did the Council do when certain Member States undermined the provisions of the Charter and prevented the Palestinian people from exercising their right to creating an independent State, with Jerusalem as its capital? What did the Council do when those Member States themselves violated the provisions of the Charter by invading Iraq? What did the Council do when those same States violated the provisions of the Charter and destroyed Libya? What did the Council do when the same States violated Charter provisions by fuelling terrorism worldwide and called it the jihadi movement? What did the Council do when the same States violated the provisions of the Charter and flagrantly interfered in the internal affairs of Member States and looted their resources, as is the case with several African States?”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“It is our right today, as it is the right of all peoples of the world who still believe in the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter, to wonder what the Council is doing to ensure respect for those purposes and principles wisely established by the founders, with a view to maintaining peace, security and prosperity following the wars and tragedies that they experienced. We in Syria know that our country is not the first victim of violations of Charter provisions and international law by certain members of the Council. However, what Syria has been enduring is the consequence of silence over the course of decades in the face of such violations.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): Article 2, paragraphs 1, 4 and 7, of the Charter of the United Nations provide for respect for the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members and that all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State. Moreover, no provision of the Charter authorizes the United Nations to intervene in matters that are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State. Likewise, all 29 resolutions on Syria adopted in the Security Council stress the strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as to the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.”
2018-02-14 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8181 (2018) · source
“I wish to inform you, Sir - and I am sure that you are aware of this - that I sent a letter yesterday to the President of the Council asking for an investigation into a documented report published by the British Broadcasting Cooperation on the support provided by the so-called international coalition forces to terrorists of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This support was supposedto secure the exit of ISIL elements, provide them with shelter and obstruct the operations of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies against ISIL. We look forward to the same level of enthusiasm that the Council demonstrated today in dealing with all the issues that I have mentioned in my statement.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“Those countries should also consider the hundreds of letters that we sent to the Council on the support and funding of arms that has been and is still being provided by the Governments of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey to armed terrorist groups in Syria and the ongoing support of Israel to the Al-Nusra Front in the separation zone of the occupied Golan, which led to the abduction of two members of the contingents of Fiji and the Philippines deployed to the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“In conclusion, together with a number of other Member States' Governments, we believe that the time has come for the Council to shoulder its responsibility of maintaining international peace and security with integrity and in a balanced manner. To that end, some members of the Council must ensure that their actions match their words, especially those that enthusiastically advocate for extending the Mechanism according to the American way. Those countries must demonstrate the same enthusiasm to ensure the implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, some of which are based on Chapter VII of the Charter, and investigate violations of those resolutions by Governments of some States.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“My country, Syria, reiterates that it has complied with the provisions of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction. Since we acceded to the Convention in 2013, we have possessed no banned toxic chemical substances, as confirmed by Ms. Sigrid Kaag, Head of the Joint Mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations for the Elimination of the Chemical Weapons Programme of the Syrian Arab Republic, in her report to the Council that was submitted in June 2014 (S/2014/444, annex). Syria considers the use of chemical to be an immoral act that must be condemned, regardless of where, when and under what conditions they are used.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“I will not repeat the remarks that I made at last week's meeting in this Chamber on the legal, technical, and scientific aspects that refute the report and all that it includes regarding the methodology and specious conclusions of the Mechanism related to Khan Shaykhun. Some Council members may not be aware of the fact that a British expert from the United Kingdom Permanent Mission to the United Nations visited many permanent mission to advocate for the same findings of the report before it had even been submitted. When I say the same findings, I mean the exact same wording, terminology and information. What impartiality and professionalism are we talking about with the presence ofa British expert who had promoted the same outcomes that were to be issued in the report?”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“I remind everyone that the United States delegation was quick to ask the Council to extend the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism only 48 hours after its seventh report (S/2017/904, annex) was issued, although by then it had been revealed that the report had already been prepared and written in the dark rooms of London, Paris, and Washington, DC. The leadership of the Mechanism only had to sign and seal the report to present it to the Council on 7 November (see S/PV.8090). It did not burden itself with even noting the remarks made by Council members and responding to them at that meeting.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“Any draft resolution failing to consider those standards and safeguards would be analogous to a mere PlayStation game and represent a desperate attempt to pursue the dangerous endeavour of conducting investigations from afar, relying on false witnesses, information provided by the Al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group; on open sources affiliated with it, such as the White Helmets; and early warning mechanisms, as mentioned in the report of the Chairman of the Mechanism, that are able to predict the unknown and can somehow detect chemical weapons carried by aircraft flying at a distance of several kilometres away.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“We believe that the draft resolution that was introduced by Russia and China and vetoed by three States since the beginning, was aimed at assisting the Mechanism to carry out its mandate, in accordance with the norms pursuant to the relevant international terms of reference, and steering it away from politicization and the pressure that has been exerted by the United States, the United Kingdom and France. This would have righted the course of its work in a way that would have enabled it to find that truth based on physical and conclusive evidence, which does not allow for multiple interpretations, falsification or manipulation.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“The three States and their proxies in the region were focused on only one aspect - their conspiracy with armed terrorist groups to stage crimes using chemical substances against Syrian civilians and to accuse the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic of them because they have not found more dangerous types of weapon to carry out their interventionist and destructive agendas after having exhausted all other tricks up their sleeve. In the Syrian Arab Republic, we are not at all opposed to the establishment of investigative mechanisms that are independent, honest and professional to determine who is responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Syria. As Ijust said, we were the first to ask for such assistance.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“The mission has not yet gone to Khan al-Assal as a result of the fabircation of the Ghouta incidents, which took place just minutes before Mr. Sellstrom's mission was supposed to leave for Khan al-Assal. I am recounting that story only because it has been repeated many times. It was a rather historic moment, as it showed that the mechanisms and committees established by the United Nations to investigate the use of chemical substances in Syria would not be permitted to establish the truth or carry out their work professionally, impartially, independently and transparently.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“I asked him to send an emergency mission to help the Syrian Government investigate the use of toxic chemical substances and identify the perpetrators. Within just a few hours following our meeting, as he told me, the Secretary-General consulted with the influential members of the Council. He then called back to inform me that the United Nations would provide assistance only in determining whether chemical substances had been used, but that it would notbe able to help identify the perpetrators of those crimes. Although we agreed to receive that incomplete mandate, it took four months for the Secretary-General to send an investigation mission, under the leadership of the Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom. Despite that unjustified delay of four months, the Mission has yet to set foot in Khan al-Assal. That was four and a half years ago.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“In the Syrian Arab Republic, we therefore continue to believe that it is the principles of international law and the purposes of the Charter that must govern international relations. We continue to believe that truth and justice will ultimately prevail, as the only alternative is chaos. Accordingly, from the very beginning my Government has cooperated with the United Nations, its bodies, committees and numerous envoys. When armed terrorist groups carried out their crimes in Khan al-Assal, near Aleppo, on 19 March 2013, which marked the first case of the use of chemical weapons, the United Nations was the only entity from which my Government sought assistance to investigate the use of chemical weapons there. Only hours after that incident, I personally met with former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“However, the fact of the matter is that there are three permanent members of the Council who have adopted aggressive and hegemonic policies. They regard the United Nations and the Security Council as mere administrative offices or commercial entities in the service of achieving their goals. Fortunately, two permanent members, along with other states, oppose such practices and attenuate that hegemony and aggression. Were it not for those two countries, which are committed to the purposes of the Charter, to date the world would have experienced even more destruction, wars, crises and iterations of the A1-Nusra Front, which was created by those three countries when they decided to sponsor and finance terrorism and use it as a weapon against all those who oppose their interventionist policy.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“The vote of the Russian Federation today has saved the Council from manipulating a United Nations mechanism whose Chair is supposed to have at least the same courage as the Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission established pursuant to Security Council resolution 687 (1991), the Swedish Rolf Ekeus and the Australian Richard Butler, who refused to legitimize the United Kingdom-United States invasion of Iraq. We in the Syrian Arab Republic - a founding Member of the United Nations - still believe that the Organization plays a vital role in finding solutions to crises when Member States comply with the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations, foremost of which is the maintenance of international peace and security, which is the main responsibility of the Council.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“Unfortunately, some members of the Council are treating the cases of the false justifications that were made in the brazen invasion of Libya and Iraq as though they were incidents that would be forgotten by the Council, and could be repeated at any time with guaranteed impunity. We cannot allow that. Fortunately, there are some members of the Council whose memory is still good, and they do not forget. Russia did not obstruct the work of the Security Council today. It has worked to prevent another tragedy such as that witnessed in Libya and Iraq. It has preserved the integrity of the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations at a time when integrity and purity have been lacking.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“Mr. Ja'afari (Syrian Arab Republic) (spoke in Arabic): We need to understand the important discussions that have taken place in the Chamber today. I invite Council members to review a report published by the Daily Mail in January 2013 and later withdrawn. The report includes the e-mail correspondence between sernior officials at a British company called Britam Defence. It describes a plot that was subsequently approved by Washington, DC, whereby Qatar, in cooperation with Turkey, would finance and support rebels in Syria to use chemical weapons and then blame the Syrian Government for the use of those weapons. The report was published in a British newspaper in 2013, not a Syrian newspaper.”
2017-11-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8105 (2017) · source
“For those Governments, Syria and its people were simply prey to a fighting pack of hyenas. In the words of Mr. Al-Thani himself, "we fought over the prey and it ran away as we fought over it". The Syrian Arab Republic rejects the form and content of the report of the Joint Investigative Mechanism, because of the accusations it has made regarding the painful incident in Khan Shaykhun. My country will not allow its thousand-year-old civilization to become a prey or target to the Governments that sponsor terrorism. We will continue our war on terrorism. We will rebuild our country. We will achieve the ambitions of our citizens with our blood, sweat and tears, and with the support of our friends who respect international law and reject any breach ofthe Charter of the United Nations.”
2017-11-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8090 (2017) · source
“What is the use of having our Organization if the Governments of those States continue to use it to bear false witness and shatter entire States, such as Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya; besiege, starve and kill entire peoples, as in Palestine and Yemen; impose illegal sanctions on countries, such as Cuba, Venezuela and Iran; and bring a dirty terrorist war to my country, Syria. The list goes on. To conclude, the terrorist war that has targeted Syria has cost its sponsoring Governments $137 billion to date, a fact that was admitted by one of its agents, former Prime Minister of Qatar Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber bin Muhammad Al-Thani. Just a few days ago, he admitted to the media that the terrorist war was a joint plan that united his country with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United States, Israel and Jordan.”
2017-11-07 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8090 (2017) · source