Al-Jaafari: Syria will not declare war on anyone, but will defend itself if war is declared upon it

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari said on Friday that Syria is against WMDs and that it will not declare war on anyone, but it will defend itself if war is declared upon it, calling for a political solution led by Syria and for supporting efforts to hold the international conference in Geneva.

Speaking to the Syrian TV by phone, al-Jaafari said that Syria, as a founding member of the United Nations, is fully committed to the UN Charter and international law and does not intend to go to war with the US or any other country, stressing that Syria’s diplomacy is realistic and that Syria knows its boundaries.

“When there’s talk of war, then we should prepare for it and consider the possibility of aggression before any other possibility, but at the same time we must show that we are realistic in our diplomacy nor that we want to enter a war with the United States,” he said.

Al-Jaafari pointed out the international law and the UN Charter permit a country to wage war on another in self-defense, yet Syria has not declared war on anyone, therefore no law permits Washington or Obama to declare war on Syria, adding that that the current US administration is part of the problem and not part of the solution, and that it is still providing military and intelligence support to the terrorists in Jordan and Turkey on their borders with Syria, in addition to sponsoring weapon smuggling from Lebanon to Syria.

He pointed out to what Obama said in a press conference on Friday when he said that he was elected to stop war, something which Obama said before, yet here he is being led by Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and hostile sides in America towards an aggression against Syria.

Al-Jaafari pointed out that the US media outlets indicate that Israel is pressuring the US administration to attack Syria, with Israel’s Haaretz newspaper even quoting a former consultant of the Bush administration as saying that Israel may be responsible for the use of chemical weapons in Damascus’ outskirts.

He also underlined the overt Saudi role, with the Saudi Foreign Minister often stating that he arms terrorists in Syria and that he recently sent them 400 tons of weapons via Turkey.

Al-Jaafari stressed that the US must be more transparent in presenting so-called evidence of the use of chemical weapons and to cooperate with investigators instead of calling for secret closed meetings with known partners in the aggression against Syria.

He reiterated that Syria is opposed to weapons of mass destruction and that it presented to the Security Council in 2004 an initiative to make the Middle East clear of all WMDs, but this was opposed by the US which threatened to veto this initiative, since the US wants Israel to keep its nuclear weapons, the most dangerous type of WMDs.

Al-Jaafari noted that at one point, Syria was a partner in counter-terrorism and was responsible for saving thousands of Americans’ lives, something which several senior US officials admitted, and Syria still insists on encouraging the US side to be a full partner with Russia in preparing for the international conference on Syria.

He asserted that Syria is completely with holding those who use chemical weapons accountable via international mechanisms like the Security Council, recalling that the Europeans were the first to use chemical weapons back in WWI, specifically by the Germans against the British in Belgium in 1915, adding that Italy also used chemical weapons in Libya and Ethiopia and France tested the effects of nuclear weapons on Algerians, not to mention America’s use of nuclear weapons in Japan and biological weapons in Vietnam, adding “those who want to give lessons to others must themselves adhere to the non-proliferation of WMDs.”

Al-Jaafari said that there’s irrefutable proof from countries, capitals and journalists proving that the US allegations against Syria on the chemical weapons use are false and not based on reality, and their justifications are geopolitical as they want to fight Iran and Hezbollah through Syria, manipulate regional alliances, and give Israel the upper hand.

He pointed out to the media reports on the conflicting numbers of victims of chemical weapons use in Syria, with John Kerry claiming that the number of victims is 1429 while British sources said 350 and French sources said 281, wondering if these three countries can’t even agree on what happened and give tremendously different numbers regarding a specific regrettable incident, then how can one trust the results of their actions and statements?

Al-Jaafari noted that the Russian delegation at the Security Council presented an 80-page scientific report two months ago proving that foreign-backed armed groups used chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal and elsewhere in Syria, adding that it was Syria who asked the UN to investigate what happened in Khan al-Assal.

“If we did that, then how did they jump immediately from an incident in Khan al-Assal to allegations that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in 49 incidents?” He asked, recalling that many of these allegations come from countries involved in hostile activities against Syria including Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France and Britain.

Al-Jaafari said that UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane told him personally that a large number of the aforementioned allegations are without credibility and thus were excluded by the UN Secretary-General from investigation.

He noted that the UN Secretary-General who had negative positions on the crisis in Syria in the past is now against actions outside the Security Council, with Ban Ki-moon saying in St. Petersburg that he’s against the use of force outside the framework of the Security Council and that the solution should be political and via the international conference, adding that Ki-moon’s statements mean that a change has occurred to previous calculations.

“When the New York Times publishes on its front page on Thursday in a positive article a picture of terrorists from Jabhat al-Nusra executing captive Syrian soldiers, this means that something is happening within the media and political decision-making circles in America,” al-Jaafari said, adding that this means that there are attempts to draw the US administration’s attention to mistakes in calculations made by those pushing towards aggression.

Al-Jaafari said that as the crisis becomes more intense, the image becomes clearer to observers and people, noting that the division witnessed at the G20 summit is similar if not more intense than the division in the Security Council and the UN, with the number of those questioning the so-called proof provided by the US administration increasing, not just in the UN, but in the American media and public opinion as well.

He pointed out that there’s another important indicator in what is happening is the Congress and Senate meetings, as while the Foreign Affairs Committee authorized Obama to use force against Syria, the voting was split ten in favor, seven against, and one abstaining, meaning that it was close to a 50/50 split, and this division is a very important indicator, adding that the so far, the administration only managed to get 17 votes in favor out of the hundreds of Congress members, showing that there’s intense debate on this issue there.

“Those who die on the ground are the Syria people, and the victims of any American aggression will be members of this people… the Syrians aren’t fans of wars and don’t call for them; they call for adherence to international law and going to the international conference on Syria… they also call on the countries funding terrorism to stop supporting it.

“We call for a political process led by Syria according to Security Council decisions and the plan by Kofi Annan and Brahimi… since the beginning we didn’t say no to the political solution,” al-Jaafari said, noting that it was the Americans, British and French who refused Syria’s request to the UN to investigate who actually used chemical weapons in Khan al-Assal, meaning that they didn’t want the culprit to be discovered from day one.

He noted that testimonies and information have emerged from various sources, including prosecutor Del Pone, the Russian report, journalists and even the Associated Press correspondent in Amman who said that Bandar bin Sultan and his brother were the ones who provided chemical weapons to armed groups in Damascus’ outskirts, and this caused people to think deeply about what actually happened and who used chemical weapons.

Al-Jaafari said that everyone knows that aggression of any kind targets the Syrian people, calling on all Syrians regardless of their evaluation of events to realize that there can be no grey areas in this matter, and that they must know that the aggression will affect everyone and that US missiles won’t distinguish between them; instead the missiles will destroy all that was built in Syria and its resources.

“This must be clear in everyone’s mind… our people will play the price, and any wrong analysis of what is happening now won’t be in anyone’s interest,” he concluded.