Attacks of September 5th in Syria

On instructions from my Government, I wish to inform you that on the morning of Monday, 5 September 2016, armed terrorist groups caused six explosions that targeted civilians in the governorates of Tartus, Homs, Hasakah and Rif Dimashq.

For almost six years, at the behest of their handlers and sponsors, foreign-backed armed terrorist groups have adopted crime, terrorism and murder as a tactic in the current crisis. A terrorist suicide bomber has now detonated a car bomb at the Arzunah bridge on the international motorway in Tartus governorate. Another terrorist suicide bomber then detonated his explosive belt among the civilians who had rushed to help the competent authorities to rescue the wounded. According to a preliminary count, 30 civilians were killed and 43 sustained injuries of varying gravity.

A terrorist suicide bomber detonated a car bomb at the entrance of the Bab Tadmur quarter of Homs city, killing four civilians and inflicting injuries of varying gravity on ten others. Public and private property and infrastructure were extensively damaged.

Two more terrorists blew themselves up with explosive belts on the Sabburah-Bajja‘ road, in western Rif Dimashq, killing a civilian and injuring three others.

In the city of Hasakah, a suicide bomber detonated a booby-trapped motorbike at the Marshu roundabout, killing five civilians, injuring others and causing material damage on location.

These bloody attacks are part of a systematic campaign of terror waged by such armed terrorist groups as the Nusrah Front (which recently changed its guise and took on the name Front for the Conquest of the Levant), the Army of Islam, Ahrar al-Sham, the Army of Conquest and the Nur al-Din al-Zanki movement. In a departure from the spirit, principles and provisions of the Charter of the United Nations, certain permanent representatives on the Security Council refer to those groups as armed moderate groups. Faced with tens of thousands of terrorists deployed by those States to weaken the Syrian State and reverse the achievements of the Syrian people, Syrians have remained committed to their land and nation. They have done so despite all of the crimes and massacres committed against them at the behest of certain States and regimes that are well known to all. These include Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, the United Kingdom, France and the United States of America, all of which openly and explicitly support the criminals and terrorist murderers. Those actors that support and finance the terrorists and their organizations unfortunately persist in describing them alternately as armed moderate groups and moderate opposition groups. The States and regimes that sponsor the so called moderates continue to find inhumane, immoral and illegal excuses for their crimes and massacres against the Syrian people. In so doing, they directly and frankly encourage the groups to commit further crimes. All of the peoples of the world have noted how the Security Council has largely refrained from condemning those terrorist acts or holding the perpetrators to account.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic emphasizes that such massacres and terrorist crimes will not deter it from fulfilling its legal and moral duty to fight terrorism, or from working to reach a political solution to the crisis in Syria through dialogue among Syrians under Syrian leadership, leading to the eradication of terrorism, the reconstruction of all that the terrorists and their sponsors have destroyed, and the restoration of security and stability for the Syrian people. Terrorism in Syria poses a threat to all States of the world, and those actors that are supporting and funding it should immediately desist from doing so. The unilateral economic measures imposed on Syria also constitute direct support for the terrorists, whatever the causes and excuses that are invoked; they, too, are killing Syrian civilians, particularly women and children.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic calls on the Security Council to immediately and strongly condemn the terrorist crimes and bloody massacres committed by the armed terrorist groups. The Security Council must fulfil its responsibility to preserve international peace and security. To that end, it must take swift action to deter and penalize those States and regimes that are supporting and financing terrorism, particularly Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and France. It must prevent them from persistently undermining international peace and security, and compel them to comply fully with the relevant Security Council resolutions, particularly resolutions 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2253 (2015).

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