‘Unplanned meetings on Syria convene when UN-recognized terrorists are under attack’ – Russia’s envoy to Security Council

7 Feb, 2020 09:01 / Updated 1 hour ago

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FILE PHOTO: A meeting at the UN Security Council. ©  Reuters / Lucas Jackson 

As Damascus forces repel attacks in terrorist-held Idlib, emergency Security Council sessions are called along a familiar pattern, Russia’s UN envoy said.

As “violence only to terrorize and subdue” broke out in Idlib, the US, France and Britain convened an impromptu UN Security Council meeting on Thursday. The American representative slammed what she called an “unjustified military offensive” launched by Syrian government forces to defeat armed radicals led by Syria’s main al-Qaeda faction HTS – still better known as the al-Nusra Front despite multiple rebrandings.

Moscow’s envoy to the international body, Vassily Nebenzia, dismissed the complaints as hypocritical – noting that Washington never seems to care about any collateral damage but cries emergency every time Syrian forces make gains against the terrorists.

“The unplanned meetings have a common pattern now: we meet together precisely when the terrorists in Syria are under threat, and the Syrian government is regaining control of its national territory,” he said, adding that Damascus had a “right and duty” to fight terrorism in its own sovereign territory.

These terrorists, I’d like to remind you, are recognized as such by the Security Council.

Moscow already pointed out that Washington still often paints al-Qaeda-linked militants as “moderate rebels” and “legitimate opposition” merely seeking political change in Syria –despite the fact that HTS (in particular its core Nusra) is acknowledged as a terrorist group around the world, including by the US government. Under the Barack Obama administration, both the Pentagon and the CIA armed and trained various rebel fighters to the tune of billions of dollars in a failed bid to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, prolonging the bloody conflict by years.

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Syria’s envoy to the Security Council repeatedly slammed American and Turkish operations in the country during Thursday’s meeting, stating they were “occupying” Syria and “pillaging” its resources, but he was interrupted by Security Council President Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve – prompting an objection from Russia.

Hostilities escalated earlier this week, when several Turkish personnel were killed by Syrian army fire as Ankara moved its troops without prior notice. In response, Turkish forces said they “neutralized” 76 Syrian soldiers.

On Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated that terrorists who took over the Idlib de-escalation zone have carried out thousands of attacks just in the last two months.

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