Damascus, SANA – The Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Tuesday sent two identical letters to the UN Secretary-General and the head of the Security Council regarding the terrorist attacks that targeted Aleppo city on Monday, claiming the lives of scores of innocent civilians.
The letters said that Aleppo and its peaceful people were targeted by another heinous crime on Monday at the hands of terrorist organizations which are called “moderate armed opposition” by their supporters, with these terrorists firing more than one hundred rocket shells blindly and indiscriminately at the neighborhoods of al-Sirian, al-Sirian al-Jadideh, al-Aziziye, al-Rashdin, Salaheddin, al-Ismailiye, Nile Street, the surroundings of Sheihan Hospital, and al-Sabil housings in city.
The Ministry said that these attacks claimed the lives of 36 civilians, 12 of them children, and injured more than 120 others, most of them women and children, and the death toll is likely to increase due to the critical nature of some of the injuries the victims sustained, adding that the attacks also caused massive material damage to residential buildings and public and private properties.
The letters said that this new massacre is the latest in a series of methodical terrorist acts that have been targeting Syria for over four years, and that they constitute a vindictive act of revenge against the people of Aleppo who stood against terrorism and refused to abandon their homes.
The Ministry said that the terrorists of the so-called “moderate armed opposition” aren’t the only sides responsible for this crime, as responsibility falls on the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Turkey, and Israel that support, fund, harbor, train, and arm them, with these regimes turning a blind eye to the Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism while other Security Council members and the international community remain suspiciously silent to a degree that borders on complicity with these terrorist groups and shows that some continue to employ policies of double standards when it comes to counterterrorism.
The Ministry said that the ongoing politicization of the crisis in Syria and the double standards employed in this context are no longer acceptable now that everyone has become aware of the barbarism and brutality of terrorist organizations and their crimes against Syria and its people, civilization, and culture, adding that the false allegations about the presence of “moderate armed opposition” that some are seeking desperately to promote are also unacceptable.
The Ministry went on to say that the international community must stand as one to cooperate and coordinate with the Syrian government which has been fighting terrorism for years on behalf of the people of the region and the world and in defense of human existence, and the values of justice and freedom, adding that all Security Council resolutions on counterterrorism, specifically resolutions nos. 2170, 2178, and 2199, must be put into effect.
The letters concluded by saying that that the Syrian government is committed to continue its battle against terrorism in Syria and to defending its people as per its constitutional responsibilities, and that it calls on the Security Council and the UN Secretary General to denounce the recent terrorist attacks in Aleppo, refer to things by their proper and real designations, and take fundamental deterrent steps against terrorist organizations and the states that support and sponsor them.
Hazem Sabbagh
