Vice-president of the Syrian Coalition Oqab Yahya on Monday said that the international community has not kept its promises to prevent the Iranian oil tanker from unloading its cargo in Syria. He pointed out that the arrival of the oil tanker at the Syrian coast will fuel the Assad regime’s military machine and enable it to carry on with its atrocious crimes against Syrian civilians.
Yahya said that Iran has violated all international resolutions and the sanctions imposed on it and on the Assad regime by the US administration. He noted that this will undermine efforts to bring the regime back to the negotiating table.
Yahya stressed that the international community’s lukewarm stance twards Iran’s “malicious” activities in the past few years reflected negatively on the peace and security of the countries of the region. He warned that this policy risks taking the whole region to the “edge of an abyss.”
The international community must show a real, concrete response to the arrival of the oil tanker Adrian Daraya 1 at Tartous port, Yahya added. The tanker arrived at the Syrian coast despite the repeated warnings to Iran and to whoever provides assistance to the vessel.
Not only the issuance of warnings will fail to make Iran back down, but will also be seen as a green light by Iran to provide more support to the Assad regime and embolden it to repudiate the political process laid out in the international resolutions, especially the Geneva Communique of 2012 and UN resolution 2254.
The vessel was photographed by US satellites near the port of Tartous, which was later confirmed by the National Security Adviser to the White House John Bolton.
The British Royal Marines helped seize the Iranian supertanker off the coast of Gibraltar on July 4 on suspicion of being headed to Syria in violation of EU sanctions. It was released on August 15 after Iran pledged in writing that the tanker would not unload its cargo in Syria. (Source: Syrian National Coalition’s Media Department)
