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US supporting Nusra Front terrorists: Syria

Saturday, 01 October 2016 8:59 AM [ Last Update: Saturday, 01 October 2016 12:29 PM ]

This file photo shows members of the Takfiri Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in an undisclosed location in Syria.

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations says the US and its allies are using Nusra Front terrorists as a shield to protect what they call "moderate" militants in Syria.

“The American administration is not genuine and not serious about combating al-Nusra Front terrorists, which is a terrorist entity according to the Security Council list,” Bashar al-Ja’afari told Russia Today on Friday.

Ja’afari said the UN is turning a blind eye to reports from its own staff members who witnessed hospitals in Aleppo becoming “occupied” by foreign-sponsored militants.

He also said Washington has never had a solid plan to help resolve the ongoing crisis in Syria.

“The United States had never had a ‘Plan A’ to move to ‘Plan B,’ Washington had a ‘Plan B,’ they never worked out a ‘Plan A,’” Ja’afari said.

He said the West is one of the root causes of the Syria conflict.

Syria’s Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar al-Ja’afari (photo by AFP)

Nusra using Aleppo residents as a shield

Militants of al-Nusra Front, recently renamed as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, are using civilians in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo as human shields amid government operations in the area, Ja'afari said.

Al-Nusra is “using them as human shields and preventing them from getting out of the eastern part of Aleppo through the four humanitarian corridors opened by both the Russians and Syrian army,” he said.

On July 28, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria and Syrian government forces set up a number of humanitarian corridors in Aleppo in a bid to allow aid deliveries and safe exit for those willing to leave the divided city.

‘Ready for peace’

Ja'afari further stressed that the Damascus government is prepared to cooperate with related parties on the restoration of lasting peace in the country.

“We are ready to go for a political settlement. We went to Geneva, we went to Moscow, we went everywhere for a political settlement. However, it should be a Syrian-Syrian settlement, it should be political, it should be without any foreign interference,” he said.

The Syrian conflict, which flared up in March 2011, has claimed the lives of more than 400,000 people, according to an estimate by UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura.

Ja’afari said the conflict in Syria has "a rather geopolitical dimension."

"This is what Moscow got from the beginning, this is what Beijing got from the beginning, this is what Tehran got from the beginning. The issue is much much bigger,” he said.

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