Syria rejects reports of UN-backed commission

The Syrian ambassador to the United Nations says Damascus does not recognize the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria as its reports are based on “fake” accounts.

Bashar al-Ja’afari made the remarks at an informal session of the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to hear a briefing from its members, the Syrian official news agency SANA reported.

Criticizing the commission, Ja’afari said its reports and briefings “rely on fake narrations and misleading testimonies of some people out of the Syrian borders or fabricated reports of non–government (sic) organizations.”

He said the panel, on the other hand, has ignored the testimonies of thousands of Syrians who were victims of the crimes committed by the terror groups operating inside the Arab country as well as “the abundant information provided by the Syrian government to the United Nations since the beginning of the crisis through more than 600 official letters.”

The Syrian envoy described supporting terrorism as the “biggest violation of human rights” in Syria and said the issue of sending tens of thousands of terrorists into Syria “from more than 100 countries” must be the basic factor in the task of the commission.

“If the committee was really committed to the human rights, why it doesn’t accuse the international [community], Arab and regional countries, particularly Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey of supporting terrorism, and why it doesn’t take deterrent actions against them,” Ja’afari said.

The commission, which was established in August 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council, has a mandate to look into all alleged violations of international human rights law since March 2011 in Syria.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. According to a recent report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

Damascus accuses Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar of funding and arming terrorist groups in the country, including Daesh Takfiri group.