Media Statement
Syrian Coalition
New York, NY
September 19, 2013
President of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, Ahmad al-Jarba, wrote to the UN Security Council today calling upon the UN to intensify its efforts to stop the conflict in Syria.
For the past week, members of the UN Security Council have discussed the adoption of a binding resolution that will eradicate chemical weapons in Syria. The Syrian Coalition recognizes the urgent need to disarm a regime that has deployed sarin gas against its own people, killing over 1,400 Syrians and injuring thousands more.
At the same time, the Coalition urgently calls upon the Council to do more to stop a conflict that has already killed 100,000 people and displaced over six million.
In the letter, President al-Jarba urged the Security Council to set in place serious consequences in the case of any non-compliance by the Syrian regime, as the international community seeks to actively disarm and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.
Without the necessary safeguards, the regime will seek to delay and obstruct the work of future weapons inspections. The President therefore called on the Security Council, “to authorize the use of all necessary measures to ensure that any non-compliance will have serious consequences as provided for in Chapter VII of the UN Charter.”
To demonstrate the Coalition’s own commitment to continued cooperation with the UN, the President reaffirmed that, “the Coalition will cooperate fully with the UN, OPCW and other international personnel who will be responsible for dismantling the Syrian chemical weapons programme, including working towards ensuring their security.”
In addition, the President urged the Security Council to seize the current discussion of Syria’s chemical weapons as an opportunity to end the conflict in Syria.
Reiterating the Coalition’s commitment to a political solution, President al-Jarba called on the Council “to endorse the Geneva Communiqué, as agreed by the Action Group for Syria, in June 2012, as the fundamental basis for the creation of a transitional government framework in Syria.”
President al-Jarba repeated the Coalition’s willingness to engage in a future Geneva II Conference, noting, “For this conference to succeed, all parties must declare their support for the complete terms of the [Geneva] Communiqué and agree that the purpose of the conference will be the establishment of a transitional government with “full executive powers”, created on the basis of “mutual consent.”
