Syria urges UN to take measures against Qatar

Syria has called on the United Nations to take serious and immediate measures against Qatar for its support for terrorist groups fighting the government of President Bashar al-Asad.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry made the remarks on Wednesday in two identical letters addressed to the UN secretary general and president of the UN Security Council, demanding that Qatar be held responsible for backing terrorists who have been committing heinous and violent crimes against the Syrian state and people.

The letters were sent in response to a similar letter to the UN by Qatar accusing Syria of using chemical weapons.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry rejected the claims in the letter by Qatar, saying that Doha’s allegations are a desperate bid to distort facts and cover up its support for terrorist organizations.

The ministry also called Qatar’s move ironic, saying that Damascus was the one to request an investigation into the use of chlorine against innocent civilians.

In March 2013, Syria called for an independent investigation into the use of chemical weapons by foreign-backed militants in the northwestern city of Aleppo that killed at least 25 people.

The governments of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and some other Western and regional countries provide toxic materials to terrorists in order to slander the Syrian government, Damascus said in the letters.

The Syrian government has warned on numerous occasions that the Takfiri groups operating in the country use chemical arms such as chlorine gas in their operations against government forces.

The West and their regional allies, however, accuse Damascus of using such types of weapons although Syria has already destroyed almost its entire chemical stockpile under the supervision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011.