‘Same people shedding crocodile tears over Syria, support terrorists in country' - Syrian amb. to UN

The causes of the Syrian conflict are due to an imposed terrorist war, which is supported by the Western countries, Bashar al-Jaafari, the current Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the UN Headquarters in New York.

On conflict in Syria in general

Emphasizing that the five-year Syrian conflict is not only about Aleppo, but about the fate of the entire country, Bashar al-Jaafari said the main cause of the crisis stems from terrorist war imposed on the Syrian people from abroad.

"The root causes of this conflict in Syria ravaging the country is due to this imposed terrorist war on the Syrians," al-Jaafari said, before proceeding to identify some of the foreign backers. "And this imposed terrorist war is backed by the Western countries, as well as by Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia."

Claiming that "Damascus has fallen after five years of this ferocious terrorist war", the Syrian ambassador to the UN said it is now clear to everybody "what is going on in Syria".

"It is about hundreds of terrorist armed groups backed, sponsored, given weapons and protected in the Security Council by the same guys who are shedding crocodile tears over the suffering of the Syrian population in Aleppo," he told RT.

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On situation in Eastern Aleppo

Bashar al-Jaafari provided a glimpse of the humanitarian tragedy playing out in Aleppo, a once thriving city that is now a shadow of its former self since the arrival of Islamic State forces.

"Before there were 4 million people living in Aleppo before the crisis erupted three years ago. Two million residents of Aleppo left to the coastal areas… beautiful cities on the coastal areas of Syria. Two million remained in Aleppo; 1.75 million people decided to live in the areas under government control because they feel safer.

He went on to describe how a large portion of the remaining population became hostage to the terrorists, and are now being used as "human shields" on the battlefield.

"About 275,000 civilians unfortunately were taken hostage by the terrorists of Al-Nusra Front and Jaish al-Fath, and all these terrorist groups that are changing their labels around the clock, working for Turkish, Saudi, Qatari and American intelligence...

These groups are using these 275,000 people 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 Armies," he explained.

On the humanitarian issues in Syria

Bashar al-Jaafari had some strong words for some of his colleagues in the United Nations, who he said take a "hypocritical approach" to the Syrian conflict.

"We need to combat the terrorists genuinely speaking in Syria by cooperating and consulting with the Syrian government," al-Jaafari asserted. "Not by calling the Syrian government ‘Syria regime’ as the American ambassador keeps saying in the Security Council."

On the US plan A and plan B

Commenting on US actions in his country, and talk about moving to a 'plan B', al-Jafaari was short and blunt: "The US never had a plan A to move to plan B. Washington has always had a plan B. The proof is that we went to Geneva for the intra-Syrian talks as I told you to find in front of us terrorists from Jaish al-Ahrar and Jaysh al-Islam, both working for the intelligence of Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

READ MORE: ‘US had never had ‘Plan A’ for Syria, West a root cause of crisis’ – Syrian UN envoy to RT

On accusations of Syria killing civilians

Bashar al-Jaafari defended the Syrian government from charges that it is killing Syrian people, asking what would that gain.

"It is not about the government and the president killing their own people. This is wrong. This is hypocrite. This is a big lie," he said. "A government responsible such as the Syrian government wouldn’t kill its own people. What would be the benefit for us to kill our own population?"