On September 19, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Mariya Zakharova, made an official coment on the recent US-led attempt to use the UN Security Council to rescue terrorists organizations operating in Syria’s Idlib.
Voting on draft resolutions on Syria at UN Security Council (source):
During a meeting of the UN Security Council on September 19, the delegations of Belgium, Kuwait and Germany, under pressure from the US, put to a vote a draft resolution that urged all combat operations in the Idlib de-escalation zone in Syria to be halted.
In fact, this was a provocative attempt to take the heat off the terrorist organisations controlling Idlib, being lavishly nourished from abroad.
In essence, this had nothing to do with caring about the civilians who are suffering from the terrorist domination in this area of Syria. The project initiators were not even stopped by the fact that an entire range of such organisations were acknowledged as terrorists by the UN Security Council, which urges that a relentless struggle against them be waged. It is obvious that an attempt was made to use humanitarian aspects for political purposes, to perpetuate the dividing lines in sovereign Syria and to protect the extremists from being totally wiped out by securing them in the country’s northwest.
The draft resolution, vetoed by Russia and China, would have laid the foundation for groundless accusations of the Syrian government and the Russian military of violating international humanitarian law; it also threatened further measures in case of the ceasefire violation, that is, it denied the opportunity to strike back against the stepped-up terrorists’ raids, including their shelling of civilian objects in towns and the Russian airbase in Khmeimim.
The draft resolution completely ignored the efforts made by the three Astana guarantors (Russia, Iran and Turkey) to promote a political settlement in Syria, as well as avoided mentioning the ceasefire introduced on August 31, which was nearly disrupted by the US Air Force’s strike on the Idlib zone.
While working on the draft, the Russian delegation suggested constructive amendments to be made, so that the ceasefire did not apply to anti-terrorist activities. However, these amendments were ignored. The co-authors refused to continue looking for compromise formulas and, as we understand, under pressure from Washington, insisted on putting the draft resolution to a vote as submitted. We also have information that US representatives put pressure to bear on UN Security Council members so that the process of approving the draft resolution ended up in a stalemate, avoiding a constructive discussion.
Russia and China presented an alternative draft resolution on the ceasefire, which would have come into force as of midnight September 20, but would not apply to anti-terrorist combat operations. Unfortunately, it was not supported.
Russia will continue facilitating the restoration of sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Syria, the return of the country to a peaceful life and successfully eradicating terrorism.
