(MENAFN- Arab Times) More than 70 countries have signed a letter demanding that Syria stop indiscriminate aerial attacks that have killed thousands of people and urging the UN Security Council to prevent the Syrian Air Force from future attacks including dropping barrel bombs.
The letter, sent Thursday to Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council and General Assembly, expresses "outrage" at the continuing violence against civilians, especially by "the systematic use of barrel bombs." May was reportedly the deadliest month in the Syrian conflict, now in its fifth year, the letter said, and in recent weeks Syrian air force helicopters repeatedly bombarded heavily populated areas in and around Aleppo, the country's largest city, leaving hundreds dead and dozens of others wounded. "Tragically, these barrel bomb attacks in Aleppo were the latest in a long line of the grisly and horrific use of aerial weapons, including barrel bombs, that have been launched by the Syrian Air Force on crowded urban areas, such as markets and bakery queues, hospitals and medical facilities, schools and places of worship, transportation hubs and residential buildings, throughout the course of the Syrian crisis leaving thousands dead," the letter said.
Last year, the Security Council approved a resolution aimed at expanding the delivery of humanitarian aid, which demanded that all parties in Syria halt attacks against civilians and any indiscriminate use of weapons in populated areas, "including shelling and aerial bombardment, such as the use of barrel bombs." The 71 signatories to the letter urged the council to implement this provision of the resolution and prevent any future aerial bombardments.
They also urged the council to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches everyone in need in Syria, which is not happening now because of the fighting and bureaucratic hurdles, mainly by the Syrian government.
Drafted
The letter was drafted by the ambassadors of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and the signatories include the United States, Britain and France € but not Syria's close allies Russia and China, the two other veto-wielding members of the Security Council. While Russia and China didn't block three resolutions last year aimed at speeding up delivery of humanitarian aid to millions of Syrians, they have vetoed several previous resolutions that even hinted at threatening sanctions against the Syrian government. And it appeared highly unlikely that Russia would approve any new measure trying to halt aerial attacks by the Syrian military.
Meanwhile, representatives of some of Syria's leading pro-government tribes on Friday rejected support from Jordan's King Abdullah II against the Islamic State group, accusing him of backing "terrorists." Their comments came after the Jordanian monarch, in a meeting with tribal leaders in his country, pledged to support tribes in areas of Syria and Iraq where the jihadists are operating. "It is our duty as a nation to support the tribes in eastern Syria and western Iraq," the king was quoted as saying by Jordanian official media during the meeting on Sunday. While the pledge was welcomed by some tribes in Iraq, the comments were received differently in Syria, where the government accuses Amman of backing rebels fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad. "The Syrian tribes firmly and definitively reject any call or project to deprive them of their national, Syrian, Arab essence," said Sheikh Mohamed Fares Al-Abd Al-Rahman of the Tay tribe.
Speaking underneath a photo of Assad at a Damascus press conference, he expressed "surprise" at King Abdullah's comments. The king, he said, "is well aware of who is behind the terrorists and where their operations rooms and military training camps are located, where their funding and weapons come from, and how they enter our country from Jordan."
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