In response to the recent violence in Zabadani, Syria, Syrian National Coalition Special Representative to the United Nations, Dr. Najib Ghadbian, delivered a letter to the Security Council calling attention to the grave situation in Zabadani, where inhabitants have been suffering under a joint offensive by Syrian regime force and foreign fighters from Hezbollah. The letters calls on the Council to:
- Take action to condemn in the strongest terms Hezbollah’s acts of aggression inside Syria;
- Call on the Lebanese government to abide by its accords and take steps to prevent Hezbollah from launching attacks on Syrians from inside or outside Syria;
- Support the establishment of a safe zone in Syria to mitigate the damage caused by the regime’s indiscriminate aerial attacks, including with barrel bombs.
Download a PDF of the letter here.
H.E. Mr. Gerard van Bohemen
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Permanent Mission of New Zealand to the United Nations
President of the UN Security Council
8 July 2015
Your Excellency,
On behalf of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, it is my grave responsibility to draw your attention to the situation in Zabadani, Syria, where a joint offensive by Hezbollah and Syrian regime forces is terrorizing the town’s inhabitants.
Since last week, reports indicate that Syrian regime forces have launched more than 115 barrel bomb attacks on Zabadani, 90 on 3 July alone, while both Hezbollah and regime ground forces have been relentlessly shelling the town. Reports also indicate that the surface to surface missiles unleashed on the people of Zabadani in the last few days may have been launched from within Lebanese borders. These indiscriminate aerial attacks and incursion by foreign fighters constitute violations of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions.
Sadly, this illegal military onslaught by the foreign fighters of Hezbollah into Syrian territory is not new to Syrians, who have endured Hezbollah’s violent support for the Syrian regime in the Qalamoun region and elsewhere throughout the crisis. Hezbollah, a military group considered terrorists by many states including some permanent members of the Security Council, routinely crosses the Lebanese border into Syria to fight for a regime responsible for ninety-five percent of all deaths since the beginning of the uprising.
Hezbollah is one of many foreign fighting groups to wade into the conflict, but it has been one of the largest, boldest, and most destructive to the Syrian people. We have many times urged that all foreign fighters, among them Hezbollah, are unwelcome and should leave Syria. With over 220,000 lives lost, it is time for the international community to take actionable steps to relieve the terror that is life in Syria today. Therefore, the Syrian National Coalition asks that the Security Council:
- Take action to condemn in the strongest terms Hezbollah’s acts of aggression inside Syria;
- Call on the Lebanese government to abide by its accords and take steps to prevent Hezbollah from launching attacks on Syrians from inside or outside Syria;
- Support the establishment of a safe zone in Syria to mitigate the damage caused by the regime’s indiscriminate aerial attacks, including with barrel bombs.
The Syrian National Coalition reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of acts of aggression by any and all foreign fighters in Syria that terrorize the Syrian people, whether they associate with ISIS, Hezbollah or any other group that uses terror to threaten the Syrian people’s aspirations for freedom, pluralism, democracy and peace.
Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.
Najib Ghadbian
Special Representative to the United Nations
