Syria Urges Int’l Community to Prove Anti-Terrorism Commitment
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Syria, in separate letters to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council, asked the international community to demonstrate its commitment to fighting against terrorism and extremism.
“The international community is called on to prove adherence to its counter-terrorism commitments through full cooperation and coordination with Syria which is preventing the spread of international terrorism,” the Syrian foreign ministry stated in the letters.
Syria believes that it is now imperative for international community and the anti-terrorism countries to compel states backing terrorism against Syria to cease their support, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted the ministry as saying on Friday.
In the letters, Damascus also pointed to the heinous crimes that armed terrorist groups affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) are committing against Syrian civilians in the eastern Syrian region of Hasaka.
According to the report, the Syrian foreign ministry added that many civilians were killed and over 200 civilians including children and women were kidnapped.
More than 690 families were displaced and religious places were destroyed, the letters stated, referring to the torching of Tal Hermez historic church, one of the oldest in Syria and the world.
The ministry said that these crimes are only the tip of the iceberg of atrocities committed against Syrian people and an attempt to sow discord, hatred and estrangement among compatriots.
“The Syrian government stresses that these terrorist acts could not have been possible without the direct support provided for these groups by countries known to all,” the letters noted.
The ministry also called on the UN Security Council to genuinely enforce its counterterrorism resolutions and not allow them “to remain ink on paper.”