UNSC Open briefing/Closed consultations-Syria (political/humanitarian)

[Friday, 25 February 2022; 1000 hrs]

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Mr. President,

I join others in thanking Special Envoy Geir O. Pedersen and Assistant Secretary General Ms. Joyce Msuya for their updates today.

2. It has been India’s consistent stand that imposing external solutions would not help in resolving the Syrian conflict. It is for the Syrians to determine and decide what is best for Syria and for their own future. The Special Envoy has been making consistent efforts to facilitate the political process in line with Resolution 2254. We support his active diplomatic efforts to end the stalemate in the Constitutional Committee process. We take ote of annuncement of holding of 7^th Constitutional Committee meeting in Geneva next month.

3. We take positive note of Special Envoy’s recent visits to Damascus and Moscow and his meeting with the Syrian and Russian leadership, respectively. Special Envoy has also engaged with the leadership in the region, including in Egypt. We believe that regional players and Syria’s neighbors have an important role to play in peaceful resolution of this conflict and to achieve lasting progress in implementing UNSCR 2254.

Mr. President,

4. Regarding Confidence Building Measures, we look forward to receiving Special Envoy’s paper on ‘new ideas’, as was conveyed in January to this Council. We hope the paper will address issues related to reconstruction as well. We also welcome efforts by the Syrian authorities to prioritize the return of the displaced Syrians to their own areas.

5. On the security front, we remain concerned about the overall situation in Syria, including the increasing incidents of ceasefire violations in North-West Syria. We call on all sides to desist from actions that may deteriorate the situation further. India has been repeatedly emphasizing on the looming threat posed by resurgent terrorist groups in Syria. The brutality of attacks by Daesh/ISIL in the northeast of Syria in Al Hasakah last month demonstrates the severity of the problem. The re-emergence of Daesh/ISIL in Syria and Iraq calls for urgent action by the international community. We reiterate that global fight against terrorism cannot and should not be compromised for narrow political gains. Terrorists can neither be defeated by forming alliances with non-sovereign entities nor by pushing narrow political agendas.

6. The humanitarian crisis in Syria has not seen significant improvement in recent months. We believe that a nation-wide comprehensive ceasefire is paramount to the interest of the Syrian people. It will also help to expand crossline humanitarian aid operations.

Mr. President,

7. We note that the progress has been made to expand the overall humanitarian response and facilitate crossline access, including on drafting a six-month plan for ensuring predictable and sustainable flow of aid. In the northwest, however, we believe there is considerable scope for expanding the operations. It may also be noted that the ongoing cross border operations continue to negatively impact on the sovereignty of the Syrian state. We therefore encourage OCHA and other UN agencies to pursue efforts to enhance crossline operations.

8. There is need to scale up humanitarian assistance and shore up donor support for Syrian humanitarian response plan of the UN, which remains under-funded. We also continue to believe that it is critical to achieve progress on implementation of UNSCR 2585, with regards to early recovery. The support of the international community to address the economic and humanitarian challenges remains integral to the success of the political process.

9. On our part, India has continued to extend developmental assistance and human resource development support to Syria. In response to a request from the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic for emergency humanitarian assistance, Government of India gifted 2000 MT of rice to strengthen food security in Syria last year, in two consignments. Earlier, India had gifted 10 metric tonnes of life-saving medicines in July 2020 to Syria as part of Covid-related assistance. Over 500 Syrians have benefited from the artificial limbs (Jaipur foot) fitment camp organized in 2020.

Mr. President,

10. To conclude, it is not to be overlooked that the political and humanitarian aspects of the conflict in Syria are strongly interlinked. India remains strongly committed to supporting the ongoing UN-facilitated Syrian-led and Syrian-owned reconciliation process as the credible way forward.

I thank you.

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