The delegation of the Syrian National Coalition to Geneva held a series of meetings with the permanent missions of the United States, the European Union, and Canada in Geneva on the sidelines of the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council. The delegation focused on the grave situation in Idlib, especially the largest and unprecedented waves of displacement since 2011.
The delegation talked about the latest developments in the political process and the obstacles to its work, especially the work of the Constitutional Committee.
The delegation talked about the continued bombardment by the Assad regime forces, with Russia support, on Idlib province and southwestern rural Aleppo. It pointed out that the bombardment and shelling is primarily targeting civilians and vital centers, such as civilian homes, public markets, schools and places of worship, and medical facilities.
The delegation also provided an explanation of the distribution of the IDP camps and the basic needs. It called for increasing the number of aid trucks that the United Nations and international organizations send every day through the border crossings. It pointed out that the current amount of aid falls short of meeting the growing needs of the displaced people.
Moreover, the delegation warned against attempts by the Assad regime to politicize humanitarian aid and deny it to those in need, pointing to the need to reduce the operating costs of the intermediaries working in the delivery of aid.
The delegation called on all missions to take a real, international action to establish a safe zone to protect civilians. It also called for focusing the efforts on finding a radical solution to the root causes of the problem, rather than to its symptoms through an inclusive political process and the implementation of UN resolutions, most importantly UN Security Council resolution 2254 and the Geneva Communique of 2012.
The delegation called for greater coordination and cooperation to work towards finding solutions to revitalize the political process, starting with the constitutional process and opening the other tracks laid out in UN Resolution 2254.
The Coalition delegation emphasized that Iran is the number of beneficiary of Assad’s survival as it called for putting pressure on Russia to agree to a ceasefire and cease attacks on civilians. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
