Thirteen years ago, the Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad responded to peaceful protests with a brutal crackdown. His regime has detained, tortured, and murdered civilians – including children – and rejected diplomatic efforts to end a war that has claimed more than 500,000 lives, destroyed Syria’s economy, and forced millions from their homes.
Millions of Syrians remain internally displaced or have sought refuge in neighboring countries or further afield. The UN has been able to scale-up its cross-border operation back to pre-earthquake levels and aid is again reaching millions of people in northwest Syria.
In the meantime, the Assad regime continues to refuse to negotiate an end to the conflict through Security Council Resolution 2254, said U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis, Acting Deputy Representative to the United Nations.
Russia claims to support a Syrian-led political process, yet it continues to put up roadblocks to peace.
As a consequence of this intransigence, “the Syrian people continue to face immense challenges,” observed Ambassador DeLaurentis:
“More than 130,000 Syrians are unaccounted for, languishing in regime prisons or detention centers, or missing and believed murdered by the regime, terrorist groups like Da’esh, and other parties to the conflict. Assad’s April 2022 amnesty, which we hoped would be followed by additional releases, instead resulted in the release of only 500 people, many of whom were emaciated, with some having reportedly lost their memories or suffered from trauma or mental illness, while others sustained physical injuries.”
Moreover, the brutal practice of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance of innocent men, women, and children continues.
Syria is spreading instability beyond its borders by flooding the region with illicit drugs. The Assad regime has also allowed Russia to use Syria as a logistics node to export its destabilizing activities to Africa.
“Amidst this backdrop, the United States will not normalize our relationship with Assad, and we have strongly discouraged others from doing so,” declared Ambassador DeLaurentis:
“We will not lift our sanctions on Assad or support reconstruction absent genuine, comprehensive, and enduring reforms and progress on the political process.”
“We renew our call for a nationwide ceasefire,” said Ambassador DeLaurentis, “and the humane release of the unjustly detained and to clarify the fate of the missing, including those who are deceased, and for the Assad regime to finally engage the political process in good faith.”
