{"id":246570,"date":"2020-02-29T05:27:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-29T10:27:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=246570"},"modified":"2020-02-29T05:27:25","modified_gmt":"2020-02-29T10:27:25","slug":"un-chief-urges-syria-cease-fire-but-russia-and-china-oppose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/02\/29\/un-chief-urges-syria-cease-fire-but-russia-and-china-oppose\/","title":{"rendered":"UN chief urges Syria cease fire but Russia and China oppose"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The U.N. chief made the appeal after airstrikes in the last opposition stronghold in Idlib killed at least 33 Turkish troops on Thursday. (Shutterstock photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAMEROON, Cameroon \u2014 Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again called for an immediate cease-fire in northwestern Syria Friday \u201cbefore the situation gets entirely out of control,\u201d and 13 of the 15 nations on the U.N. Security Council supported his appeal at an emergency meeting \u2014 but not Syria’s closest ally Russia and China.<\/p>\n

The U.N. chief made the appeal after airstrikes in the last opposition stronghold in Idlib killed at least 33 Turkish troops on Thursday. The attack heightened tensions between pro-opposition Turkey and Russia, and raised the possibility of an all-out war with millions of Syrian civilians trapped in the middle.<\/p>\n

Guterres said he’s been in very close contact with Russia and Turkey, appealing for a cease-fire in the Idlib region but \u201cwe are not yet there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout urgent action,\u201d he warned, \u201cthe risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four European Union council members \u2014 France, Germany, Belgium and Estonia \u2014 said in a joint statement that \u201cthe military escalation in Idlib must stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe demand an end to this Syrian military campaign supported by Russia, and fully back the calls made by the U.N. secretary-general for an immediate cease-fire and unimpeded humanitarian access,\u201d they said. \u201cWe strongly urge the U.N. to accelerate and intensify their engagements with all relevant parties to secure an immediate cease-fire effort in northwest Syria.\u201d<\/p>\n

The four EU countries requested the emergency meeting along with the United Kingdom, United States and Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft condemned the attacks on the Turkish troops \u201cin the strongest possible terms,\u201d calling them \u201cwholly unjustified, senseless and barbaric.\u201d She reiterated U.S. calls for \u201can immediate, durable, and verifiable cease-fire\u201d<\/p>\n

Craft said the council meeting is \u201cabout the reckless and serious risk of the Assad regime and Russia’s offensive places on the security of a NATO ally,\u201d but it is also about the 950,000 Syrians who have fled the government’s offensive that began in December, many now living in flimsy tents and in the open in freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n

She asked again: \u201cAre we going to sit back and watch? Are we going to remain silent? Or will we deliver? How many more babies have to freeze to death before we raise our voices and say, `Enough!\u201d’<\/p>\n

Estonia’s U.N. Ambassador Sven Jurgenson said Russia has blocked Security Council resolutions calling for a nationwide cease-fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn light of what has happened, we urge Russia to reconsider its position and allow a chance for a humanitarian truce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said over recent months, \u201cterrorists\u201d seized Idlib and the Jihadi group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or HTS, \u201chas upped its incursions\u201d against civilians and Syrian forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Syrian army is fully in its right to respond and clamp down on the terrorists,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is in its own territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said \u201cterrorism is an underlying factor\u201d in the nine-year Syrian conflict and \u201ceradicating the forces of terror is a necessary requirement for the restoration of peace and stability in Syria and the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terrorists \u201cshould be resolutely crushed, and safe havens established by terrorist forces in Syria should be liquidated,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the same time, counter-terrorism operations should be cautious not to harm civilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAMEROON, Cameroon \u2014 Secretary-General Antonio Guterres again called for an immediate cease-fire in northwestern Syria Friday \u201cbefore the situation gets …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":139216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-246570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246571,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246570\/revisions\/246571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}