Statement by Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the political and humanitarian situation in Syria
Mme.President,
We thank Deputy Special Envoy Najat Rochdi and USG for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths for the briefings and assessments of the political and humanitarian situation in Syria.
We are convinced that there is no alternative to promoting a Syrian-owned and Syrian-led political settlement under UN assistance, given full compliance with UNSC resolution 2254 and respect for sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of the country. At the consultations with SESG Pedersen in Moscow on 9 June 2023, we reiterated both this point and our consistent position in support of Special Envoy’s mediator efforts. At the same time, we think it is important that the SESG should stick to his UNSC-endorsed mandate, which has at its core facilitation of inter-Syrian talks, including in the framework of the Constitutional Committee which is considered the best format for a direct inter-Syrian dialogue. We remain convinced that major decisions regarding the parameters and the venue where future rounds of the consultations should take place are to be made by the Syrians themselves without external interference.
We are satisfied with the results of the 20th International Meeting on Syria in Astana that we held on 20-21 June with our colleagues in the Astana Process, Iran, and Türkiye. The meeting reiterated the leading role of the Astana Format in promoting a lasting settlement to the Syrian crisis. Besides, Astana hosted fruitful four-lateral consultations of Deputy Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria, and Türkiye that focused on preparing a roadmap on recovery of Syrian-Turkish relations.
Mme.President,
These days a lot of attention is paid globally to the normalization of Syria’s relations with other Arab states, including the much-anticipated return of Syria to the Arab League. We assume that resumption of participation of Damascus in the League, where Syria is one of the founding states, will improve the overall environment in the Middle East and help overcome the consequences of the Syrian crisis, as well as the devastating earthquake of 6 February 2023. In this context, we hope that Arab states will enhance their support for the SAR in solving the issue with infrastructure recovery with a focus on humanitarian track, as well as trade and economy. This task is harder to fulfil because of the illegitimate unilateral sanctions that Western states imposed on Damascus.
Unable to prevent Syria from reuniting with the Arab family, our American and European colleagues try to bargain Damascus into political concessions while proceeding with their anti-Damascus approaches. We hear of plans to adopt a bill “against normalization” which shows that the United States is not ready to abandon its neo-colonial approaches and behaviors that seek to punish the people and leadership of Syria for their pursuit of an independent policy.
For these purposes, the US uses practical levers, such as the Caesar Act, illicit military presence in cross-Euphrates area and Al-Tanf, pillaging of Syria's natural resources (primarily oil and grain). Washington and Brussels’ announcements regarding the easing of sanctions and the generous donor support, including in the aftermath of the earthquake, turned out to be empty rhetoric.
Against this backdrop, the situation on the ground remains tense. Destabilization factors remain the same – illegal foreign military presence in the North, North-East, and South of the country, remaining terrorist hotbeds, first of all in Idlib, regular arbitrary air strikes by Israel against the Syrian territory. Such steps that infringe on the sovereignty of Syria and neighboring Arab states, as well as the lack of any adequate reaction to it by the UN leadership, cause deep regret and a strong condemnation.
On our part, we keep working side by side with the Syrian army to oppose terrorists who are entrenched in Idlib. On 25 June, Syrian Armed Forces and Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed a commando post of “Al-Fatah Al-Mubin” which is affiliated with HTS, arms and ammo depots, as well as launching sites, where UAV were loaded with explosives. More than 30 fighters were eliminated, including several jihadist leaders.
Mme.President,
In the context of Syria’s humanitarian challenges, we state the lack of progress in implementing cross-border UNSC resolution 2672. Even the devastating earthquake in February failed to change the state of affairs. We are particularly concerned over the depressing situation with financing of UN operations in the country. Entire donor attention is focused on northwestern areas of Syria that are not controlled by Damascus. Emergency humanitarian appeal, for which the United Nations requested $397 million to provide assistance to residents of the affected areas was fully financed in the first few months. We cannot say the same about the 2023 humanitarian plan for Syria. 6 months into the year, only 12 % of the required $5.4 billion has been collected. In view of a critical lack of funding, the UNDP will have to cut its humanitarian outreach by 40 % already in the next month. Attempts are being made to convince us that Syria’s cross border humanitarian mechanism (CBM) must be renewed for another 12 months for the purposes of better planning of the operations. May I ask what funds the UN is going to use to cover this planning? The calls that we will continue to hear today are nothing but mere hypocrisy. In this situation, early recovery projects in Syria appear to be completely out of the question. Against this backdrop, generosity of Western donors as regards the West-orchestrated crisis in Ukraine looks double-faced. Whenever it is about Syria, Yemen, African states, then our Western colleagues turn out to have either no or little money which they allocate very unwillingly and in small measures.
But when it comes to Ukraine, the US and its allies have spent on weapons alone as much as UN OCHA has requested in 2023 to provide humanitarian assistance to all those in need across the world – approximately $55 billion. By the way, OCHA has raised only 20 % of this sum so far. Imagine how many people in the world could receive assistance if Western donors truly wanted it. Alas, they prioritize spending on weapons, which brings profits to their own military corporations. Speaking of the total financial, military, and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, the National Bank of Ukraine estimates it to have exceeded $120 billion in 2022. That’s what you call Western priorities.
Colleagues,
In these complicated and rather uninspiring circumstances, we will soon have to decide on the future of Syria’s cross-border humanitarian mechanism. In the run-up to this date, the West launched its hypocritical propaganda machinery which they normally kick-start once every six months. They again spread their narrative that in the absence of CBM, millions of Syrians will freeze and starve and that there is no other choice than to extend again this scheme that violates sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria.
They are saying this even though they know too well that there is an alternative to the CBM, which is to deliver humanitarian aid across the lines of contact as stipulated among other things by UNSC resolution 2672. The thing is that such cross-line deliveries are not welcome by the internationally listed terrorists in Idlib. In case of cross-line, terrorists cannot sack the incoming aid and profiteer from this as much as they do from cross-border deliveries. For this very reason, only one (and rather low-key) cross-line convoy has taken place this year, and it was clearly dedicated to this meeting. Do you seriously think that against all this backdrop, we should pass the situation with cross-line convoys as satisfactory?
Over the past half year, the United States and the EU did not even ease unilateral sanctions that are smothering those whom we are called to help by renewing the CBM, to say nothing of lifting the restrictions completely or of early recovery projects in the territories controlled by the legitimate Syrian authorities. Such initiatives are very scarce and subjected to numerous restrictions, which can make the reconstruction itself utterly impossible. This looks more like some window-dressing.
Assertions that are widely spread here in the Council that termination of the cross-border resolution would cause donors to withdraw their support for early recovery efforts in Syria, and would allegedly call back the UN mandate for early recovery are unconvincing. For years, this support was barely enough to cover the basic urgent needs of Syrians, the vast majority of whom live in territories under the governmental control. In this formula, the CBM has always been a zero-sum game that does not bring any benefits to the Syrian people.
Instead, we more and more often hear that the UN would like to get a foothold in the rebellious northwestern Syria without any connection to the official Damascus. Against this backdrop, our principled assessments and approaches to the CBM have not undergone any changes. This mechanism is humanitarian only by its name. In fact, it is increasingly being used to undermine sovereignty of and deepen territorial divisions in Syria, discriminate government-controlled territories, and nurture illegal armed groups.
With this approach, a question begs itself. Who is it that we are going to adopt a new CBM resolution for? It does not seem that for the Syrians. More likely, for the terrorists who hide out in Idlib. If we truly worry about the people of Syria and Syrian refugees, then it is about time our Western colleagues changed their hypocritical approach.
This being said, we call on the penholders of the Syrian humanitarian file in the Security Council, when working on a draft humanitarian resolution for Syria, to proceed from the true interests of the much-suffered Syrian people who reside in the territories controlled by the internationally recognized Syrian government, rather than get carried away politicizing humanitarian aspects and playing a giveaway game with the UN and Idlib-based terrorists, who since February this year have developed a close and, as we can see, rather fruitful collaboration with Mr.David Carden, the UN Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, who also happens to be a British national.
Thank you.
