by News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
U.N. Security Council unanimously demands truce across Syria as warplanes continue to pummel eastern Ghouta, last rebel enclave near Damascus
Smoke billows following a regime airstrike on eastern
Ghouta, Friday
Photo: AFP
The U.N. Security
Council on Saturday demanded a 30-day cease-fire across Syria as
rescuers in the country's eastern Ghouta region said bombing had not let
up long enough for them to count bodies during one of the bloodiest air
assaults of the seven-year war.
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump
called out Russia and Iran, as well as the Syrian government for
fostering a "humanitarian disgrace" in Syria.
"I will say what Russia, and what Iran and
what Syria have done recently is a humanitarian disgrace. I will tell
you that. We're there for one reason. We're there to get ISIS, and get
rid of ISIS and go home. We're not there for any other reason. And we've
largely accomplished our goal. But what those three countries have done
to people over the last short period of time is a disgrace," he said
during a White House news conference with Australian Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull.
Shortly after the unanimous vote by the
15-member council, warplanes struck a town in eastern Ghouta, the last
rebel enclave near Syria's capital, an emergency service and a war
monitoring group said. Warplanes have pounded the region for seven
straight days while residents holed up in basements.
U.N. chief Antonio Guterres appealed on
Wednesday for an immediate end to "war activities" in eastern Ghouta,
where nearly 400,000 people have lived under government siege since
2013, without enough food or medicine.
While Syrian ally Russia supported the
adoption of the U.N. resolution, Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily
Nebenzia cast doubt on its feasibility. Previous cease-fire deals on the
ground have had a poor record of ending fighting in Syria, where
President Bashar Assad's military has gained the upper hand.
"What is necessary is for the demands of
the Security Council to be underpinned by concrete on the ground
agreements," Nebenzia told the council after the vote. He later told
reporters it was unrealistic to expect an immediate cease-fire and that
the parties had to be encouraged to work for it.
After several days of delay and last-minute
negotiations to win the support of Russia, the council adopted the
resolution – drafted by Sweden and Kuwait – demanding hostilities cease
for 30-days "without delay" to allow aid access and medical evacuations.
"We accept that it might take a number of
hours before it can all be fully implemented … we just have to keep the
pressure up, implementation is key now," Swedish Foreign Minister Margot
Wallstrom told Reuters.
Russia did not want to specify when a truce
would start, so a proposal for the truce to begin 72 hours after the
adoption was watered-down to demand it start "without delay." Further
talks on Saturday added a demand for all parties to "engage immediately
to ensure full and comprehensive implementation."
"As they dragged out the negotiation, the
bombs from Assad's fighter jets continued to fall. In the three days it
took us to adopt this resolution, how many mothers lost their kids to
the bombing and shelling?" U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki
Haley told the council.
"We are deeply skeptical that the [Syrian] regime will comply," Haley said.
A surge of rocket fire, shelling and
airstrikes has killed more than 500 people since Sunday night, the
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The dead included more than
120 children.
The monitor said raids hit Douma, Zamalka and other towns there on Saturday, killing 40 people.
After the U.N. vote, the two dominant rebel
factions in Ghouta – Failaq al-Rahman and Jaish al-Islam – both
committed to implement the truce and facilitate aid access but also
reiterated their right to respond to any attacks on them.
Medical charities have decried attacks on a
dozen hospitals. The Syrian government and Russia say they only target
militants. Moscow and Damascus have said they seek to stop mortar
attacks injuring dozens in the capital, and have accused insurgents in
Ghouta of holding people as human shields.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military.
"We're combating terrorism on our
territories," Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told the Security
Council. "Our government will reserve the right to respond as it deems
appropriate in case those terrorist arms groups are targeting civilians
in any part of Syria with even one single missile."
Jaafari said his government interpreted the
resolution as also applying to "Turkish forces in Afrin, and the
operations of the anti-ISIL [Islamic State] coalition in Syria … Israeli
forces in Syria, especially the occupied Syrian Golan."
The truce demanded by the Security Council does not cover militants from Islamic State, al-Qaida, and the Nusra Front.
First responders searched for survivors
after strikes on Kafr Batna, Douma and Harasta, the Civil Defence in
eastern Ghouta said on Saturday. The rescue service, which operates in
rebel territory, said it had documented at least 350 deaths in four days
earlier this week.
"Maybe there are many more," said Siraj
Mahmoud, a civil defense spokesman in the suburbs. "We weren't able to
count the martyrs yesterday because the warplanes are touring the
skies."
As the bombs rain down, workers have
struggled to pull people from the rubble, Mahmoud said. "But if we have
to go out running on our legs and dig with our hands to rescue the
people, we will still be here."
The local opposition council said it was
setting up emergency volunteer teams in several districts to reinforce
shelters with sandbags and try to link them through tunnels.
Several previous cease-fire attempts have
quickly unraveled during the multi-sided conflict, which has killed
hundreds of thousands and forced 11 million people out of their homes.
Syrian state media said Ghouta factions
fired mortars at districts of Damascus on Saturday, including near a
school. Insurgent shelling wounded six people, it said, and the army
heavily pounded militant targets in response.
The Ghouta pocket has become the war's
latest flashpoint, after a string of rebel defeats and negotiated
withdrawals. With Russian jets and Iran-backed militias, Assad's
military has restored state rule over the main cities across western
Syria.
Insurgents in eastern Ghouta have vowed not
to accept such a fate, ruling out the kind of evacuation that ended the
rebellion in Aleppo and Homs after bitter sieges.
Russia has blamed Nusra fighters, from
al-Qaida's former Syria branch, for provoking the situation in Ghouta.
The two main Islamist factions there, in turn, accuse their enemies of
using the presence of a few hundred jihadist fighters as a pretext for
attacks.
News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/02/25/trump-blames-russia-iran-for-humanitarian-disgrace-in-syria/
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