Turkey continues to arm terrorist groups in Idlib, evades Sochi commitments

AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Syria's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, Hussam Eddin Ala, says Turkey has been providing various types of munitions to foreign-sponsored terrorist groups operating in the country’s militant-held northwestern province of Idlib, and reneging on its commitments under the Sochi agreement.

Speaking at a session of the Human Rights Council on Tuesday, Ala stated that the Damascus government has taken all the necessary measures to protect civilians in Idlib, including opening two humanitarian corridors there.

He added that thousands of citizens have passed through Suran corridor and returned back to their home villages and towns in Hama and Idlib provinces over the past few days.

He added that the Ankara government continues to offer ammunition to terror outfits active in Idlib, and evades its commitments under the Sochi agreement.

Under the Sochi agreement, all militants in the demilitarized zone that surrounds Idlib and also parts of the provinces of Aleppo and Hama were supposed to pull out heavy arms by October 17 last year, and Takfiri groups had to withdraw two days earlier.

The National Front for the Liberation of Syria is the main Turkish-backed militant alliance in Idlib region, but the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, which is a coalition of different factions of terror outfits largely composed of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, holds a large part of the province and the zone.

The HTS, which is said to be in control of some 60 percent of Idlib, has yet to announce its stance on the buffer zone deal.

Ala further noted that Syrian government troops are carrying out their national duties as regards combating terrorism in Idlib, and are fairly determined to eliminate all terror hotbeds from the Syrian soil.

The Syrian UN ambassador went on to say that Damascus spares no effort to protect civilian facilities, which terrorists have used as their bases and positions to launch attacks on neighboring areas.

He highlighted that the US troops and terrorist groups in al-Tanf area are responsible for the deteriorating humanitarian crisis at Rukban refugee camp in a desolate area near the Jordanian frontier, adding that the Syrian government has facilitated the return of more than 30,000 residents of the camp to their hometowns.

Ala then dismissed a recent report by the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, emphasizing that it avoids enumerating human rights violations and war crimes being perpetrated by the US-led military coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh terrorist group and US-sponsored and Kurdish-led militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), including shelling civilians and civilian infrastructure.

He held Washington and US-paid separatist militants responsible for the humanitarian catastrophe at the al-Hol camp in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, which has affected more than 70,000 displaced people.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the country.

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