New York-SANA
Syria's permanent delegate to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari, reiterated that continuing to impose unilateral coercive measures on Syria and a number of countries is a serious gap in building global collective solidarity to strengthen countries ’capacities equally, stressing that the economic blockade affects the lives of two billion people and hinders efforts Confronting the Corona epidemic and achieving sustainable development requires lifting it.
During a dialogue seminar held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York via video initiative of a number of countries, led by Syria, Venezuela, Russia, China, Iran, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Belarus under the title “The impact of unilateral coercive measures on global solidarity in the face of Covid 19 and the imperative to adhere to the United Nations Charter and to promote international cooperation and ensure that there is Someone on the knees ”Al-Jaafari indicated that the United States and the European Union are still ignoring the international and international calls made by the Secretary-General and many regional and international organizations and groups to put an end to these illegal economic sanctions, indicating that the European Union renewed a few days ago the effects of the economic blockade imposed by In addition to the United States imposing new coercive measures aimed at strangling the Syrian people and confiscating their decisions and aspirations towards security, stability and prosperity, the Syrian people must impose new coercive measures.
Al-Jaafari stressed that there is no truth to the American and European allegations regarding the existence of licenses and exceptions to these sanctions that allow the provision of food and medical supplies to the Syrian people, noting that these allegations are an irresponsible attempt to mislead the world public opinion and cover up the crimes and violations of these parties against the sovereignty, safety and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic And against the security, stability and prosperity of all Syrians.
Al-Jaafari said that during the past three months, Syria sent more than ten letters to the Secretary-General, the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council, which included accurate information and statistics about the extreme impact of these sanctions on the sectors of economy, agriculture, industry, investment, banking and service sectors in Syria, which are associated with economic terrorism practiced by the United States The European Union in particular is against any external party seeking to enter the Syrian market and participate in the process of early recovery and reconstruction, pointing to the systematic policy pursued by these governments, which is based on preventing the United Nations development system from launching the process of reconstruction in Syria after a decade-long terrorist war.
Al-Jaafari indicated that the outcomes of this symposium will constitute an important contribution in drawing the attention of the international community towards the deep negative effects of unilateral coercive measures on global solidarity in the face of Covid 19 and that it will raise the alarm again about the ineffectiveness of the global multilateral system and the inability of the United Nations to put an end to this The economic blockade, which affects the lives of two billion people and impedes the achievement of sustainable development and its goal of no one left behind.
In response to the allegations of delegates of Western countries that engage in imposing unilateral coercive measures on some people of the world and the attempts of European Union representatives to defend these economic sanctions by saying that they are consistent with international law and aim to protect human rights, delegates of Syria and a number of countries have refuted these allegations where Jaafari has stated that The Syrian banking system is completely restricted from making any external financial transfers due to the unlawful sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States and that the European Union banks placed their hands on the Syrian assets that were devoted to securing food and medicine for Syria, pointing out that the Syrian state is unable to rehabilitate electrical power stations Destroyed by the "ISIS" and terrorist organizations, because of the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on the Syrian people.
Al-Jaafari stressed that the governments of certain countries are still involved in supporting terrorism and spreading chaos and destruction in Syria and therefore they lack the legal and moral capacity to assess the situation in Syria or that they desperately try to find a baseless legal framework to impose EU sanctions on the Syrian people.
The seminar was attended by the Foreign Ministers of Nicaragua and Venezuela and a large number of permanent delegates alongside Maria Espinoza, former President of the United Nations General Assembly during its seventy-third session, and Alina Dohan, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the study of the impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights and a number of academics, jurists and activists in the fields of Economy, development and human rights.
Most of the interventions focused on refuting any legal, political or humanitarian basis claimed by the governments of countries that pursue a policy of unilateral sanctions, whereby the United Nations representatives explained the great impact of this type of punitive action on human rights and the ability of states to meet the daily humanitarian needs of their citizens, especially in Emergency situations remain as the world is witnessing today due to the pandemic of the emerging Corona virus.
Participants emphasized that unilateral coercive measures are a serious gap in the global solidarity wall that is supposed to protect all the people of the world without exception as these measures have weakened the health infrastructure of a number of countries by restricting access to the global financial, commercial and banking system and to foreign currencies and restricting the ability to Importing key medical materials and equipment not to mention undermining the ability of governments and national and private national institutions in a number of countries to cope with the economic and social impacts of the epidemic.
The participants pointed to the fact that the repercussions of these sanctions are very broad and their impact on the ability of governments to provide basic needs and services to their citizens or to support them economically cannot be limited in light of the need to implement quarantine systems and close many facilities, installations and professions.
The participants in the symposium called for studying a set of options available to confront or reduce the impact of these illegal punitive measures, foremost among which is the governments of the affected countries resorting to the International Court of Justice to obtain an advisory opinion on the illegitimacy of these unilateral policies or resorting to the United Nations General Assembly in order to Study options to deal with the refusal of the United States and the European Union to respond to repeated international and international calls to put an end to the imposition of unilateral coercive measures on a number of people in the world in light of the spread of the Covid 19 epidemic.
