Tehran Calls on Washington to Immediately End Illegal Presence in Syria

Iran's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi categorically denounced the US destructive role in Syria with illegally establishing military bases in the Arab country in violation of the international law, and urged Washington to quickly leave the war-ravaged country.

News ID: 445499

Date: 19 June 2019 - 21:48

RNA - Takht Ravanchi, addressing the United Nations Security Council meeting on "Middle East: Syria – Humanitarian", underlined Syrian territorial integrity and sovereignty and urged the US to put an immediate end to its illegal presence in Syria.

"We strongly condemn the violation of international law, in particular, the International humanitarian law (IHL) by the US in Syria, and stress that it must put an immediate end to its illegal presence in parts of Syria," the Iranian diplomat said.

Noting that "the Islamic Republic of Iran continues its consultations with other Guarantors of the Astana Format on a range of issues, including Idlib s de-escalation area to which we attach great importance," he said that "along with other Guarantors and in line with international law, Iran continues supporting the inherent right of the Syrian Government to fight terrorists designated by the Security Council."

"While International Humanitarian Law must be observed by all without exception, this cannot and should not be used as a pretext to call for stopping the fight against terrorism as it would be paradoxical," he added.

The Iranian diplomat went to stress the need for "fighting against the most dangerous terrorist groups, who have taken a large number of civilians as their hostages”, and said, "This, in fact, is a practical protection of civilians and should lead to the release of all civilians who are trapped in terrorist-held areas.”

"It is also obvious that these internationally designated terrorist groups cannot and should not be allowed to continue their control over a large part of a sovereign State territory."

Commenting on the situation in Syria, Takht Ravanchi said, "The current situation in Idlib, which allows terrorists to use over two million civilians as human shields and to conduct their operations, cannot and must not continue indefinitely. This, among other things, will prevent the return of refugees and internally displaced persons, delay the country's reconstruction, and hamper the political solution, all of which are inherently interlinked."

He went on to stress that "in this context, we strongly condemn the violation of international law, in particular, the IHL by the US in Syria, and stress that it must put an immediate end to its illegal presence in parts of Syria."

The Iranian representative at the United Nations finally underlined that "the Islamic Republic of Iran continues its consultations with other Guarantors of the Astana Format to further facilitate the agreement of the Syrian Government with the formation of the Constitutional Committee facilitated by the SRSG Pedersen."

Takht Ravanchi concluded by underlining, "Ultimately, the right to determine the future of Syria belongs exclusively to Syrians themselves. We must genuinely support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned, UN-facilitated political process."

In late February, Russia and Syria called on the United States to leave Syria and to allow people inside a refugee camp in the Southeast of the country to be evacuated by Russian and Syrian forces.

A joint statement released on February 27 by Russia's Ministry of Defense, said Russian and Syrian forces had prepared buses to relocate refugees at the camp in the Rukban area and would guarantee them safe passage so they could start new lives, Al-Jazeera reported.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees are facing harsh living conditions at the Rukban camp near the Syria-Jordan border, despite Russian attempts to set up "humanitarian corridors" through the region last week.

"We also call on the United States, whose military units are on Syrian territory illegally, to leave the country," the joint statement read.

Earlier this month, a senior Member of the Syrian Parliament rejected the claims about an agreement on Iranian military advisors' exit from the Arab country, adding that the US is entitled to no rights at all to make decisions for Damascus.

The high-ranking Syrian lawmaker made the remarks on June 04 after some news outlets claimed that Damascus and Washington had stricken a deal about Iranian military advisors leaving the Arab country.

The senior legislator rejected the rumors about curbs in Tehran-Damascus security cooperation,

Asharq Al-Awsat paper had earlier quoted Western diplomats claiming that the US had proposed to Russia to join Washington’s anti-Iran campaign in exchange for the White House’s recognition of Bashar al-Assad.

The paper went on saying that the consultations on the new proposition were slated to continue in a trilateral meeting between national security advisors of Israel, the US, and Russia.

Damascus has no intention of turning away Iran’s military assistance or demanding an Iranian military advisors’ withdrawal even in return for an easing of US sanctions, Chairman of the Syrian Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs Butrus al-Marjan told Izvestia, a Russian leading newspaper.

The senior lawmaker, according to Russian sources, has reiterated that Iran’s military assistance to Syria is nothing to be compromised on, highlighting that the US is entitled to no rights to impose its conditions on Damascus.

He clarified that Syria has so far received no official proposal from the US about the claims made by Asharq Al-Awsat.

"Washington is not in a position to tell a sovereign state whose troops it may or may not host. The Iranian troops are deployed to our country based on our government’s official request and will leave Syria when it is necessary," the lawmaker pointed out.

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