Syria’s UN representative says no normalization with occupiers
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, said on Tuesday that his country will not restore ties with the parties occupying Syrian lands.
Sabbagh made his speech during a briefing to the UN Security Council on Syria.
He stressed that Syria “will not normalize with those who occupy its lands.”
Amid ongoing attempts, under Russian and Iranian mediation, to bring Syria and Turkey close together after years of rift, Syrian government stresses that the withdrawal of the Turkish forces from Syrian lands they occupy is the most important term for restoring ties with Turkey.
However, following Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s victory in the presidential election runoff on May 28, Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, revealed on May 29 that Turkish President had no current plans to hold talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
Foreign ministers of Syria, Turkey, Russia, and Iran met on May 10 in Moscow over efforts to end decades of tension between Syria and Turkey.
Turkey has invaded Syria three times since 2016, occupying large swathes of the country’s north and positioning its armed forces along the contact line in Idlib between the Syrian government and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – formerly al-Nusra Front), a jihadist group.
Syria’s permanent representative to the UN also highlighted the key role played by Arab countries in preserving Syria’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity and in overcoming the difficult circumstances” resulting from the war, sanctions, and the Feb. 6 earthquake.
On May 19, al-Assad attended the first Arab summit after his readmission to the Arab League on May 7 that was suspended in 2011 in response to the al-Assad’s brutality against his own people.
Sabbagh also tackled the issue of Israeli attacks on Syria, adding that Israel continues “to inflame the situation in the region, committing acts of aggression and gross violations of international law and the Charter of the United Nations.”
On May 28, Israeli missiles hit sites in the vicinity of Syria’s Damascus, resulting in material losses only.