UN Ceasefire Resolution Does Not Cover Daesh, Al-Nusra Militants: Russia
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia said a recent resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria does not preclude Syrian forces from targeting Daesh and al-Nusra Takfiri militants operating in some parts of the Arab country.
The ceasefire does not preclude forces inside Syria from targeting “Islamic State (Daesh), Al Nusrah and other extremist organizations,” Nebenzia said on Saturday after the ceasefire was voted for, RT reported.
The resolution was adopted on by 15 votes to none, after several delays and a flurry of last-minute negotiations.
He also called for the world to pay equal attention to humanitarian suffering in other flashpoints around the country.
“It would be naïve to think that internal Syrian questions can be solved by a resolution,” said the Russian ambassador, adding that Moscow had “supported the intentions” behind the document, but that no ceasefire was possible “without agreement from warring parties.”
Nebenzia criticized the “occupying ambitions” of the US-backed coalition and said that foreign-backed militants bore responsibility for the humanitarian crisis that the resolution was written to address.
He also reiterated earlier accusations that the West was conducting a “propaganda campaign” against the government forces in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, where fighting has intensified over the past week.
Eastern Ghouta near Damascus has witnessed renewed violence in the past few days, where terrorists have mounted repeated mortar attacks on the Syrian capital in the face of an imminent rout. Western powers, however, blame the Syrian government and Russia for the crisis.
Following the vote on the resolution, Syria's Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari stressed that his country does not need showboating sessions or the establishment of UN committees, but it only needs the current resolutions to be abided by.
He added that the people in Damascus are deeply suffering due to the actions of the terrorists positioned in the Eastern Ghouta.
"We practice a sovereign right of self-defense and we will continue to fight terrorism wherever it is found on Syrian soil,” he said, stressing that the Syrian government reserves the full right to retaliate against armed terrorist groups if they attack innocent civilians.