<h4>UN Security Council Approves Resolution for 30-Day Syria Ceasefire</h4> Feb. 24, 2018 (EIRNS)—The UN Security Council unanimously approved a draft resolution Feb. 24, calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to, and medical evacuations out of, besieged areas, including the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta. This follows discussion, beginning Feb. 22, to include features to try to make the ceasefire workable. After the vote today, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, in a statement to the Council, predictably and repeatedly blamed the Russian Federation for delaying the vote on the resolution, for what she characterized as minor amendments. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia stressed that the resolution specifically excludes ISIS, Al Nusra and any other terrorist group designated as such, or which is associated with Al Qaeda. “It took us so much time to reach agreement due to fact that we did not support directions for immediate cessation of hostilities because, as it stood, it was not feasible to achieve this,” he said. He called on those external powers with influence on armed groups inside Syria to help implement the ceasefire. “Some external sponsors of armed factions fall short of, and at times skirt, their obligations,” he said. In direct response to Haley, Nebenzia called on the U.S. to end its occupation of parts of Syria, including in Al-Tanf, near the Iraqi-Jordanian borders in southeastern Syria and to stop the “reckless” rhetoric threatening aggression against the Syrian government. Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari issued a statement saying that Syria will continue to exercise its sovereign right to defend itself against the terrorist groups, and then denounced the U.K., U.S., and France for their colonialist plans vis-Ã†-vis Syria, the official news agency SANA reported. “These governments should also recognize that the strategic schemes to divide Syria and to change the governing system in it by force and to guarantee the continuity of terrorism and the illegal military presence on our territories, will not succeed,” Jaafari said.

FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

UN Security Council Approves Resolution for 30-Day Syria Ceasefire

Feb. 24, 2018 (EIRNS)—The UN Security Council unanimously approved a draft resolution Feb. 24, calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow for the delivery of humanitarian supplies to, and medical evacuations out of, besieged areas, including the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta. This follows discussion, beginning Feb. 22, to include features to try to make the ceasefire workable.

After the vote today, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, in a statement to the Council, predictably and repeatedly blamed the Russian Federation for delaying the vote on the resolution, for what she characterized as minor amendments.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia stressed that the resolution specifically excludes ISIS, Al Nusra and any other terrorist group designated as such, or which is associated with Al Qaeda.

“It took us so much time to reach agreement due to fact that we did not support directions for immediate cessation of hostilities because, as it stood, it was not feasible to achieve this,”

he said. He called on those external powers with influence on armed groups inside Syria to help implement the ceasefire. “Some external sponsors of armed factions fall short of, and at times skirt, their obligations,” he said.

In direct response to Haley, Nebenzia called on the U.S. to end its occupation of parts of Syria, including in Al-Tanf, near the Iraqi-Jordanian borders in southeastern Syria and to stop the “reckless” rhetoric threatening aggression against the Syrian government.

Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari issued a statement saying that Syria will continue to exercise its sovereign right to defend itself against the terrorist groups, and then denounced the U.K., U.S., and France for their colonialist plans vis-å-vis Syria, the official news agency SANA reported.

“These governments should also recognize that the strategic schemes to divide Syria and to change the governing system in it by force and to guarantee the continuity of terrorism and the illegal military presence on our territories, will not succeed,”

Jaafari said.