Al-Jaafari: Syrian government doing its best to provide citizens' needs

Syria's permanent representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari said the Syrian government is still doing its best and shouldering its responsibilities towards its people in order to provide the necessary humanitarian needs for the citizens, despite all the political, economic and media pressures exerted on it. During a Security Council session on Tuesday for discussing the Human Rights Council report on Syria under the title "the situation in the Middle East", al-Jaafari said that the Syrian government participated actively and seriously in the negotiations which resulted in the revised 5th humanitarian response plan, and that this was done out of commitment to preserving constructive cooperation with the UN and in order to deal realistically and positively with the humanitarian ramifications of the current events in Syria, SANA reported. Armed terrorist groups are flowing into Syria through the borders of neighboring countries He pointed out that terrorist groups are flowing into Syria through the borders of neighboring countries, wreaking havoc, spreading terrorism and violence, and destroying infrastructure, crops and humanitarian aid for Syrians. "The media, political and diplomatic machine is still producing numbers that are either exaggerated or distorted regarding the number of people who were killed, displaced or detained in Syria," al-Jaafari said, noting that these numbers are based on unprofessional sources, while some of these sources – like the US establishment tasked officially by some sides in the UN to tally numbers – are affiliated with countries that are openly hostile to Syria. Al-Jaafari affirmed that the sides that present and take up this numbers don't bother with checking the backgrounds of deceased or displaced individuals, nor do they bother to factor in the number of deaths from the Syrian Army and security forces in their statistics. He pointed out that the Syrian Army is facing unprecedented terrorism around the clock, confronting terrorists and extremist groups brought over from all over the world to destroy Syria and murder Syrians. "We may be witnessing a historic stage that requires everyone to take brave stances; to admit they were wrong and to confront this border-crossing terrorism which is currently affecting Syria and disregards all international accords on counter-terrorism," al-Jaafari said, adding that this terrorism will eventually reach the very countries that sponsor it, and in some cases, it already reached them. Syria's representative affirmed that if the Security Council member countries don't take measures to curb this terrorism, it will come back to haunt everyone, adding "a day will come when the governments of some of the member countries will regret what they are doing to Syria's people, economy and infrastructure." Syrian government has opened nearly 830 temporary centers to shelter the displaced "The Syrian government has opened nearly 830 temporary centers to shelter the displaced all over the country… these centers include schools, social care places and other facilities… the number of the displaced families has reached at 918.000 family in all Syrian cities as a governmental committee was formed to compensate the affected people due to the acts of terrorism." Al-Jaafari said. He added that the government has also taken a number of steps to facilitate the work of the UN organizations including the increasing of the number of non-governmental organizations in the country to 14, distributed all over Syria. Cooperation of Syria with UN is governed by the UN charter and the UN resolution 46/182 "The cooperation of Syria with the UN is governed by the UN charter and the UN resolution 46/182, the response plan… the Syrian government is fully committed to these rules, but, at the same time, it calls on the member states and the UN to show same commitment and the respect for Syria sovereignty," al-Jaafari went on. He said that the care about the civilians should not be politicized or selective as the issuance of data about the existence of 2500 citizens of the civilians besieged in Homs, to whom the Syrian government is determined to deliver humanitarian aid and lift the blockade imposed by the terrorist groups, couldn't prevent us from looking, with a broader vision, to the acts of terrorists. "We didn't see or hear any similar statement by the UN on the humanitarian dilemma caused by the armed terrorist groups and their supporters to Aleppo Northern villages and Idleb which are populated by hundreds of thousands of civilians, besieged by terrorists for more than a year," al-Jaafari added. He wondered whether or not more than one million civilian in Aleppo, who suffer from the heinous acts of the armed extremist groups, deserve a vision of interest and care from the UN to those civilians. Syrian government has sent an official invitation to the International Committee of the Red Cross to send a humanitarian aid convoy to Homs Returning to Homs, al-Jaafari affirmed that the Syrian government has sent an official invitation to the International Committee of the Red Cross to send a humanitarian aid convoy in cooperation with the Syrian Red Crescent Organization to relieve the civilians besieged in old Homs whom the terrorists take as human shields. Al-Jaafari added that contrary to the allegations of some UN officials who seek to justify their attitude on the entry of humanitarian aid into the international borders on the pretext that the Syrian government does not facilitate the delivery of aid to all areas, statistics of the UN bodies in Damascus indicate that over 60% of international aid headed to the areas where the armed terrorist groups are active, while only 40% headed to other areas. He pointed out that the report issued by the UN Higher Commissioner for Refugees on May 23rd, 2013 shows that 14 UN convoys delivered aid to hot areas including Aleppo, Idleb, Homs and Der Ezzor to over 975000 people. Al-Jaafari went on to say that the UN organized 10 convoys to 1 million people during the first half of the current year to Aleppo, Homs and Idleb. 68000 Syrian citizens have returned from Jordan voluntarily to Syria He pointed out that according to the reports issued by UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) about 68000 Syrian citizens have returned from Jordan voluntarily to Syria 9000 of whom retuned in June mostly from al-Zaatari camp, in addition to the return of more than 45000 Syrians from Turkey and 9000 from Iraq. Al-Jaafari  denounced the acts of some governments which took the IDs of Syrian citizens in their countries as to prevent them from going back to Syria. "Today, we are facing a new form of terrorism. It is an all-out terrorism in the disguise of many terms… some call it 'Jihad'; others call it 'armed struggle' and others call it 'sexual Jihad' and this is all transboundary and supervised by UN member countries," al-Jaafari said. He stressed that Syria is fighting on behalf of the whole world the fundamental Takfiri terrorism,  adding "this terrorism, which some have fought against in Afghanistan and other have fought against in Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, is now facing Syria".