Equipo Nizkor - Letter from the Permanent Representative of Syria on the position of the UK regarding the situation in Syria.

United Nations
Security Council

S/2015/690

Distr.: General
9 September 2015
English
Original: Arabic

Identical letters dated 8 September 2015 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

On instructions from my Government, I should like to convey to you the position of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic regarding the blatant interference by the British Government in Syria's internal affairs:

Certain British officials have recently ratcheted up their well-known positions regarding the situation in Syria, and this escalation has also been observed in the statements made by British foreign policy officials. Those developments demonstrate that British politicians are interfering in matters that do not fall within their competence under international law and the Charter of the United Nations. They also prove that certain Western Governments, particularly the British and the French, are pining for their long colonial pasts. Those Governments are seeking to impose their will on the people and the States of the world, citing every sort of pretext and using every means possible to justify their blatant interference in the internal affairs of independent States Members of the United Nations. They are also striving to impose on those States political systems that are in line with their interests, without regard for the rights of the peoples of those States and their hopes and aspirations to live in dignity and peace and exercise their right to self-determination.

The peoples of our region, along with the peoples of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, are still suffering from the colonial policies of successive British Governments and the destructive role they played in carving up the region. The odious Balfour Declaration and the Sykes-Picot Agreement are the clearest evidence of that role. Now, in the twenty-first century, Britain is attempting to repeat its loathsome colonial past in order to divide forcibly what has already been divided and thereby serve its narrow interests and retrace its colonial path. This includes what is happening in the Syrian Arab Republic today. The British Government has marshalled all of its resources and colonial experience to support the efforts of its various proxies to destroy peace and security in Syria by providing financial, media and political support to terrorist groups and supporting their bloodthirsty position, by providing them with arms and materiel, and by helping foreign terrorists and mercenaries to enter the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic and wreak havoc and destruction.

The British Government has exported such terrorists and mercenaries as "Jihadi John", the butcher of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant. It has also harboured the leaders of terrorist organizations for decades, including Abu Qatadah and Umar Abdulrahman, provided them with logistical support and given them a media platform to disseminate their obscurantist, destructive ideology and recruit terrorists. Such conduct reveals the political hypocrisy of Britain, gives lie to its claims that it is spreading democracy, countering terrorism and promoting and protecting human rights, and reveals the motive behind the letters it has sent to the Security Council, such as the one circulated under the symbol S/2015/641. In addition, the statements made by the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs have indicated nothing but direct support for terrorism and terrorist organizations.

It is disgraceful that British officials should deny the right of Syria to counter terrorism and protect its people against the threat thereof, as well as its efforts to bring security and peace to the country and expel from its territory terrorists who come from more than 100 countries, including from Britain. Their conduct runs counter to the responsibility placed on States under the Charter of the United Nations and international law and pursuant to the resolutions of the Security Council to protect their territories and peoples.

Those who wish to preach to others, particularly the permanent members of the Security Council, must first heed their own warnings. Prime Minister Cameron must therefore retract his statements and, indeed, apologize to British citizens for the address he made on 11 August 2011, when he said that he would use the army to quell the protests in which three persons had died and 750 had been arrested. In that same address he also said that he would not allow phoney human rights concerns to get in the way of arresting those individuals. Meanwhile, a Government spokesperson stated that Britain was considering the possibility of cutting off social networks and messaging services, such as Blackberry and Twitter, in times of disorder. All of those positions reveal the political hypocrisy and double standards of the British Government in respect of political affairs.

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

(Signed) Bashar Ja'afari
Ambassador
Permanent Representative

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09Sep15

Letter from the Permanent Representative of Syria on the position of the UK regarding the situation in Syria

Identical letters dated 8 September 2015 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council