PRESS RELEASE : The people of Syria deserve a sustainable, inclusive and just peace [February 2023]

Thank you President, and let me join others in thanking SRSG Pedersen and USG Griffiths for their briefings. Ms Muhrez, can I start by offering condolences on the tragic loss of your cousins, but also thank you for your valuable insights and your powerful testimony in describing in particular the impact of the earthquake on children and their families.

I again want to express the UK’s deepest condolences to all those impacted by the deadly earthquakes that hit Turkiye and Syria this month. The UK acted immediately, providing additional funding to first responders in North-West Syria. Announcing a further $30 million in emergency relief to the UN and humanitarian partners across Syria and Turkiye, and in issuing a general license exempting further aid from sanctions. This has provided much needed assistance, including shelter to thousands in freezing conditions.

We welcome the UN’s urgent efforts to scale up the humanitarian response, and the opening of crossings at Bab Al Salam and Al Rai. This latest tragedy has brought into sharp focus the importance of unhindered and predictable access, without conditions, into North-West Syria. This Council must continue to monitor this closely in the light of ongoing concerns that the regime continues to divert and interfere with aid deliveries.

President, colleagues, even before the earthquake hit, needs were already at their highest levels ever after more than a decade of conflict, during which the Assad regime has acted with complete disregard for the wellbeing of Syria and its people. We cannot allow the regime to use this latest tragedy to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.

Just this month, this Council heard further evidence of the regime’s criminal use of chemical weapons against the civilian population in Douma in 2018. Thousands of families are left without answers about loved ones who have been disappeared into Assad’s prison system.

At the same time, the regime continues to project instability to the region, including through the production and smuggling of captagon. This illegal narcotic industry, worth tens of billions of dollars, funds a luxury lifestyle for a regime whose people, as Martin Griffiths said, are packed into tents in freezing conditions.

President, the people of Syria’s immediate need is for humanitarian support. But they deserve a need more than that. They deserve a sustainable, inclusive and just peace. As Ms Muhrez said we owe that to them.

The UN’s political process set out in UNSCR 2254 remains the only viable route to deliver this. We welcome meaningful efforts to progress this, including important efforts in the region. We urge the regime to engage immediately and in good faith.

Thank you.