In an address to the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly in NY on Saturday, Muallem said Syria was being constantly blamed for the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the country, especially in the war-ravaged northern part, regardless of the fact that certain states favored the continued humanitarian catastrophe to advance their own objectives.
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He said the President Bashar Assad’s government remains committed to political negotiations under United Nations auspices but stressed that any solution must follow two parallel tracks: intensified counter-terrorism efforts and an intra-Syrian dialogue that allows Syrians to determine their future.
Muallem reiterated Syria’s commitment to moving forward with the UN-led peace process, saying, however, that the complicity of the USA and its allies with the Takfiri Daesh terrorists and other militants was a major obstacle to honor pledges on the cessation of hostilities. “Every time the Syrian Army kills another foreign terrorist, it spares the lives of many innocent people who could have died in a terrorist act carried out by the same terrorist upon returning to his country”, he argued.
Syria’s foreign minister says his country’s belief in military victory is greater now because the army “is making great strides in its war against terrorism” with support from Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah fighters.
Al-Moallem reaffirmed his government’s proposed roadmap to end Syria’s war, saying Damascus would support a referendum on a new constitution followed by parliamentary elections and the formation of a unity government.
In an interview broadcast on the Mayadeen TV channel Monday, al-Moallem accused the U.S., Britain, and France of convening a U.N. Security Council meeting a day earlier in order to support “terrorists” inside Syria.
Al-Moallem made no mention of Assad stepping down as president and envisioned a military victory – something Russian Federation, the US and the United Nations say is impossible.
UNITED NATIONS Syria said on Saturday its belief in victory was “even greater” now that the Syrian army was progressing in the “war against terrorism”. But he said ongoing communications between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meant a truce agreement brokered two weeks ago is “not dead”.
The assault on Aleppo, where more than 250,000 civilians are trapped in a besieged opposition sector, could be the biggest battle yet in a civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven 11 million from their homes.
Referring to a recent study, he said the more than 360,000 foreign terrorists from 83 countries have entered Syria since April 2011.
Aid was never delivered to Aleppo, and on Saturday government forces captured an area on the edge of the city, tightening their siege around the rebel-held east.
“The Syrian government holds the United States fully responsible for this aggression, because facts show that it was an intentional attack, and not an error, even if the United States claims otherwise”, he said.
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“We also reiterate our condemnation of Turkish incursion into Syrian territories under the pretext of countering terrorism”.
