Identical letters dated 26 February 2021 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council

S/2021/197 Syrian Response to US Strikes

"On instructions from my Government, I should like to convey to you the following information. 

In the evening of Thursday, 25 February 2021, United States of America warplanes committed a cowardly act of aggression when they bombed parts of Dayr al-Zawr Governorate near the Syrian-Iraqi border, in flagrant violation of international law and the Charter of the United Nations. 

That brazen American attack took place when the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria, Geir Pedersen, was in Damascus. This blatant act of aggression, which demonstrates the disdain of the United States for the role of authoritative international bodies in resolving the crisis in Syria, is the lat est in the series of attacks that have been committed by the occupying Israeli forces, the so-called international coalition and the Turkish occupiers, as well as the crimes that have been committed by armed terrorist organizations, against the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic. Meanwhile, United States Administration officials, from their perches in Washington, have brazenly cited flimsy pretexts or other shameful excuses to justify those attacks while feigning ignorance that their previous terrorist attacks caused the deaths of hundreds of innocent Syrians, as acknowledged by United States Army leadership and other States, and will only spread chaos, destroy Syrian infrastructure and increase tension and volatility in the region and around the world. Doing so directly serves the interests of armed terrorist organizations, the most prominent of which are Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Nusrah Front. The American occupiers are striving to ensure that all the requirements for the continued existence of those groups are in place, so that they can justify their occupation of parts of the Syrian Arab Republic, in violation of international law, the Charter, human rights instruments and all Security Council resolutions concerning Syria, in all of which the Council condemns terrorism and calls for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and unity of Syria to be preserved. 

The Syrian Arab Republic condemns in the strongest terms the aggression committed against its sovereignty by the United States. That aggression contravenes international law and the Charter and is not in keeping with the role of the United States as a permanent member of the Security Council, which is responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Syrian Arab Republic warns that the consequences of this aggression will escalate the situation in the region. Moreover, this aggression sends a negative signal with respect to the policies of the S/2021/197 2/2 21-02991 new United States Administration, which supposedly adheres to international law and not the law of the jungle, as the previous United States Administration did when addressing regional and international crises. 

The Syrian Arab Republic calls upon the United States of America to change its hostile approach towards it and to stop aggressing against its sovereignty and providing various forms of support to and investing in armed terrorist organizations that are targeting Syria and its people and infrastructure, as demonstrated recently when United States troops transferred hundreds of ISIL terrorists from prisons in Hasakah Governorate controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces militia to the United States base in Tanf on the Syrian-Jordanian border. 

The Syrian Arab Republic also calls upon the United States to stop creating chaos by inflaming the situation, fuelling conflicts, prolonging the crisis and impeding efforts to find a solution thereto. 

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic reiterates that is determined to recover every inch and end the occupation of Syrian territory, cleanse the country of the filth of terrorism and rebuild all that the terrorists and their backers have destroyed. It is also determined to recover the territory controlled by the separatist terrorist militias known as the Syrian Democratic Forces and to retake the occupied Syrian Golan, up to the line of 4 June 1967. 

The Syrian Arab Republic once again calls upon the Security Council to fulfil its responsibility to maintain international peace and security, and to act immediately in order to stop a permanent member from continuing to commit acts of aggression and crimes against a sovereign State and a founding Member of the United Nations, and to prevent the recurrence of such acts. Syria also once again calls upon the Security Council to end the occupation of Syrian territory by Israel, the United States and Turkey, and to prevent those occupiers from executing their plans to undermine the territorial unity and integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic. 

I should be grateful if the present letter could be issued as a document of the Security Council. 

(Signed) Bassam Sabbagh 

Permanent Representative Ambassador"