Riad Hijab, General Coordinator of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) said that Russia’s actions have led bare its real intentions behind its direct military intervention in Syria on the side of the Assad regime. Hijab said that after destroying most of the hospitals and infrastructure in Syria, Russia has recently set schools as its new target.
In a letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon following an attack on the town of Hass in rural Idlib on Wednesday, Hijab said that Russia is destroying Syria and its civilization and seeking to uproot the Syrian people from their land. He warned that Russia’s actions threaten to push Syrians towards extremism as they are left with no hope.
Assad regime and Russian jets bombed a schools complex in the town of Hass, killing and injuring dozens of civilians, mostly schoolchildren and teachers.
Hijab criticized the UN chief Ban Ki-moon for honoring the Assad regime’s envoy for 10 years of service, along with other ambassadors.
“Does not the Syrian people deserve to be honored for the steadfastness they have shown in the face of the genocidal campaign waged by the Assad regime as well as its Russian and Iranian allies for nearly six years ago?”, the letter said.
“Perhaps Russia also deserve to be honored for using all types of weapons to massacre the Syrian people and destroy their civilization. The Assad regime and its Iranian allies might also deserve to be honored for their continued killing of the Syrian people for six years,” Hijab said.
“We are not asking the United Nations to do anything as our previous calls over the past six years to protect the Syrian people and to hold accountable perpetrators of war crimes have all fallen on deaf ears. The world is standing idly by as the Syrian people are being killed en masse. Even when the Assad regime used chemical weapons, the international community looked the other way.”
Describing one of the children killed in the Hass massacre, Hijab said: “We are writing to you to let you know how the dismembered hand of a child was still clutching his backpack after his school was bombed and to ask you if the Assad regime as well as its Russian and the Iranian allies deserve to be members of the United Nations which was supposedly founded to prevent war crimes against humanity and punish the perpetrators.”
Hijab said that the answer to these questions is a real test to the United Nations and its legitimacy, adding that these questions will show whether the United Nations is prepared to uphold its moral and legal responsibilities. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
