“We condemn Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian territory that become more and more frequent. This complicates efforts to stabilize the situation in Syria and the region,” said Russian Permanent Representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia at UNSC briefing on the political situation in Syria on Friday.
Israel frequently targets military positions inside Syria, especially those of the resistance movement Hezbollah, which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists since 2011. The Tel Aviv regime mostly keeps quiet about the attacks on Syrian territories, which many view as knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s increasing success in confronting terrorism in its territories.
Damascus has repeatedly urged the United Nations to condemn and take action against Israeli violations of Syrian sovereignty. Syria called on the UN Security Council in April to take “firm and immediate” action to end Israeli acts of aggression after a barrage of Israeli missiles were launched from the direction of the occupied Golan Height on some targets near Damascus.
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said at the time in a statement that the attack was a flagrant violation of the UN Charter and Syria’s sovereignty.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Russian envoy said that Moscow’s numerous attempts to achieve reconciliation in Syria encounter political counteraction from other states.
"Russia takes maximum efforts to promote peaceful settlement in Syria. But almost every its aspect encounters counteraction. Take the CW dossier: thanks to joint efforts, the Syrian CW arsenal was destroyed. But then our partners managed to reduce Syria’s chemical file to just another element of pressure on the SAR authorities," the Russian envoy told the UN Security Council meeting, Tass reported.
Apart from working on Syria’s chemical dossier, Russia is also trying "to ease politicization of the humanitarian file, help establish constructive contacts between Damascus and the UN in order to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches all Syrians."
In April 2018, the United States, the United Kingdom and France carried out strikes on Syrian targets without the UN Security Council’s permission, saying that the operation was a response to the Syrian authorities’ alleged chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma. Meanwhile, there was evidence proving that the attack could have been staged. Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Fernando Arias said his organization finds the use of chemical weapons in Syria either confirmed or likely in 17 incidents.
MAH/TASS