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UN says Israel bombardment of Syria 'must stop'

UN Security Council appears united on Syria, say diplomats

Published : Wednesday, 11 December, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 336
DAMASCUS, Dec 10: The UN special envoy for Syria called Tuesday on Israel to halt its military movements and bombardments in Syria, after a war monitor reported 300 air strikes since the fall of president Bashar al-Assad.

Assad fled Syria as an Islamist-led rebel alliance swept into the capital Damascus, ending five decades of brutal rule by his clan on Sunday.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the Islamist leader who headed the offensive that forced Assad out, has begun talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes.

His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is rooted in Syria's branch of Al-Qaeda and is proscribed by many Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric.

The fall of Assad, who maintained a complex web of prisons and detention centres to keep Syrians from straying from the Baath party line, sparked celebrations around the country and in the diaspora all over the world.

Syria's civil war killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.

The country now faces profound uncertainty after the collapse of a government that had run every aspect of daily life in the image of Assad and his father, from whom the ousted president inherited power.

Israel has conducted many strikes on Syria since the civil war began in 2011 with Assad's crackdown on a democracy movement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded more than 300 Israeli strikes since Assad was deposed.

Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, on Tuesday called on Israel to stop.

"We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. This is extremely important," he told reporters in Geneva.

AFP journalists in the capital Damascus heard loud explosions on Tuesday but could not independently verify the source or scope of the attacks.

On Monday, Israel said it had struck "remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets in order that they will not fall in the hands of extremists".

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources around Syria, said Israeli strikes had "destroyed the most important military sites in Syria".

The group said the strikes targeted weapons depots, navy vessels and a research centre that Western countries suspected of having links to chemical weapons production.

With Syria in flux, AFP journalists in Damascus were unable to obtain official comment from the Syrian side on the strikes though they saw the defence research centre had been destroyed.

In Latakia on the coast, smoke and fire was still rising Tuesday morning from the wreckage of navy vessesl equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers, half sunken in the water, an AFP correspondent saw.

Meanwhile, United Nations Security Council members will work on a statement on Syria in the coming days, U.S. and Russian diplomats said on Monday, after a closed-door meeting over the rebel seizure of the capital Damascus and ousting of President Bashar al-Assad.

"The council, I think, was more or less united on the need to preserve the territorial integrity and unity of Syria, to ensure the protection of civilians, to ensure that humanitarian aid is coming to the needy population," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters after the 15-member body met.

Deputy U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood confirmed that most members spoke about those issues and told reporters the council would work on a statement. The United States is president of the council for December.    —AFP, REUTERS



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