UN envoy warns that threat of terrorism is `resurging’ with attacks by Islamic State extremists
UNITED NATIONS — The top UN envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday that the threat from terrorism is “on the rise again” as attacks by Islamic State extremists are set to double this year, endangering civilians already facing a “protracted state of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions.”
UN envoy Geir Pedersen said Syria was “riddled with armed actors, registered terrorist groups, foreign armies and frontlines” 13 years after President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on peaceful protests against his government descended into civil war. Nearly half a million people have been killed in the conflict and half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced.
The Islamic State declared a self-proclaimed caliphate across a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014. It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 after a three-year battle that left tens of thousands of people dead and cities in ruins, but sleeper cells remain in both countries.
Pedersen warned the Security Council about the delicate security situation in Syria.
“The threat of a regional conflict spreading across Syria has not diminished, especially with the increase in Israeli attacks on Syria,” Pedersen said.
Israel has targets attacked in Syria has had ties with Iran for years, but the attacks have escalated over the past five months due to the war in Gaza and the conflict between Iranian-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border.
US Deputy Ambassador Robert A. Wood blamed Iran, Assad’s biggest regional supporterfor the violence in Syria.
“Iran and its allies and partners have brought only death and destruction and done nothing to help the Syrian people,” said Wood, who called on Assad to curb Iran’s influence.
The Syrian, Iranian and Russian ambassadors to the UN strongly condemned the Israeli attacks on Syria.
Iranian Ambassador Amir Saeed Iravani said the strikes constituted “a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law” and “a serious threat to regional peace and security.” He said the Israeli strikes were adding to the chaos caused by the civil war in Syria.
More than 16 million people in Syria are currently in need of humanitarian assistance and 7.2 million people remain displaced in the “worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict,” Ramesh Rajasingham, coordinating director of the UN humanitarian office, told the council.
He added that the “severely reduced humanitarian funding” is exacerbating the suffering of Syrians during months of extreme heat, when rainwater dries up and a lack of basic sanitation increases the risk of waterborne diseases.
In rebel-held northwest Syria, more than 900,000 people, more than half of them children, are not receiving “essential water and sanitation support,” Rajasingham said.
Rajasingham and Pedersen called for increased humanitarian access to Syria and international funding. The UN’s $4 billion humanitarian appeal for 2024 is only 20% funded, “severely limiting” humanitarian work, Rajasingham said.
On the political front, Pedersen urged the Security Council to continue the Syrian-led peace negotiations with the involvement of “all key international stakeholders,” in line with a 2015 resolution unanimously adopted by the council.
“The conflict is ultimately a political conflict that can only be resolved if the Syrian parties can realise their legitimate aspirations,” Pedersen said.
Last week, Syria announced that all 185 candidates from Assad’s Baath Party won parliamentary seats in the country’s elections, an increase of seven seats from the party’s majority.
Pedersen said the elections were “no substitute” for the political process outlined in the 2015 Security Council resolution, while Wood called the elections a “sham” and an “endorsement of the continued dictatorship of Bashar Al-Assad.”
Wood said the US “will not normalize relations with the Syrian regime or lift sanctions unless there is a genuine and lasting political solution.”