Consortium News
Jan 18 2015
The Syrian Ambassador’s Complaint
January 18, 2015
The Western news media calls itself “objective,” but many foreign
crises are reported in a biased way, fawning over one side and
hammering the other. To provide a sense of the “other side” in the
Syrian civil war, we are reposting an interview with Syria’s UN
ambassador by Eva Bartlett for a Lebanese newspaper.
By Eva Bartlett
On Jan. 8, in his sparsely-furnished New York City office, the Syrian
Arab Republic Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, sat down with Al-Akhbar for an
interview. The veteran diplomat, who has held his position at the UN
since 2006, and lives restricted to a 25-mile radius of New York City,
has much more to say than the half hour allowed. Defiant as always, he
discussed the challenges he faces at the UN, explained why he thinks
the organization has lost its way, and censured Western states and
media for their hostility toward the Syrian government.
First, however, we discussed the exhibition of Aleppo-based Syrian
photographer Hagop Vanesian, titled “My Homeland,” which opened the
same day at the United Nations headquarters.
Al-Akhbar: How did this exhibition come about?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: This is the first breakthrough we’ve had at
the level of the United Nations since the beginning of what is
commonly called “the Syrian crisis.” For four years, I have been
trying very hard to do something inside the UN. Every time we
attempted to do something, we were confronted by a huge amount of
bureaucracy, excuses, apologies (sometimes), denial of our rights
(sometimes), negligence, etc.
I’m very glad that we finally succeeded in organizing this exhibition
— which doesn’t address the whole, dramatic picture of the Syrian
crisis, but only focuses on what happened to and in Aleppo, the
second-largest city in Syria, after the capital, Damascus. It’s about
Syria, it’s about the Syrian people. It’s not about the Syrian
government or the Syrian opposition or the Syrian coalition thugs or
Da’esh (ISIS). It’s about Syria, about what happened in Aleppo,
through undeniable photos.
The exhibition is the work of a highly-professional Syrian
photographer of Armenian origin, who is himself a citizen of Aleppo.
He is an eyewitness to the terrorist rampage that hit this beautiful
city, Aleppo, which has always been a cradle of civilization. He is
suffering greatly. He lost his home, his family. He will show only 26
photos, but he has an archive of thousands of photos. He has complete
archives of Aleppo, before and after, building by building, how it was
before and how it became.
AA: Why do you think that the UN has allowed this exhibition now? You
mentioned you’d wanted to sponsor exhibitions in the past but hadn’t
been allowed.
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: The Saudi mission, the French mission, the
Danish mission, the British mission, the German mission… they have
countered Syrian government activities in the UN. Every time we
complained about it they said, “You can do the same.” Today we said,
“We have an exhibition.” They were cornered. They couldn’t say no
(chuckles), because they kept telling me “You can do the same.” We are
not attacking Germany or France or others, we are showing the reality
in our country.
AA: An Associated Press article that has been running in the
mainstream papers slammed this exhibit; citing an official in the
opposition Syrian National Coalition calling the photographer a
“propagandist.”
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: This is what they are good at. They don’t look
at the picture in its entirety, in its comprehensiveness. They don’t
address what the photographs are talking about objectively. They have
prejudices, wrong preconceived ideas about what’s taking place in
Syria. They start with wrong ideas and end with wrong ideas. It’s
really unfortunate, because here we are not talking about just some
gallery in New York. We are talking about the United Nations
headquarters!
We are speaking the language of the UN: territorial integrity of
states, political independence of states, sovereignty of states, equal
membership of states. All these sacrosanct terms are enshrined in the
Charter of the United Nations. We are not starting from scratch or
re-inventing new language. We are in full harmony with the UN language
and the UN provisions of the Charter.
Others are not, because they don’t belong to the UN world. They [the
media] are, of course, against the Syrian government. They are against
anything that might explain positively, or objectively speaking [the
Syrian crisis], to the so-called “international community” — I don’t
believe in this word. They have been falsifying facts, spreading
rumours, making propaganda against the Syrian government for years.
And they are living off this criticism, it has become a source of
their livelihood, their own welfare. The more you criticize the Syrian
government, the more money you get from the petrodollar countries, the
more visas you get from Western world, the more you go to five-star
hotels, the more you appear on TV screens as dignitaries of the Syrian
people, as representatives — exclusive representatives — of the Syrian
people.
Anybody who opposes this exhibition belongs to a political current
opposing the truth. Any honest, objective Syrian who loves his
homeland, who says he feels sick because of what is going on in Syria,
should have a great interest in showing what is going on in Syria. All
Syrians should push for organizing more exhibitions, not only at the
United Nations but all over the world, to explain what Da’esh and
al-Nusra Front and the other terrorist groups sponsored by Saudi
Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, are doing. The Turkish intelligence is deeply
involved in sponsoring Da’esh, and in stealing our plants and
factories.
AA: You are the representative of the Syrian Arab Republic at the
United Nations, and Syria is an important subject in the news. Are you
asked to appear on major TV channels?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: Mainly, I address the media at the UN, at the
stakeout, which is the podium for diplomats, for ambassadors. I also
go on TV from time to time. But to be honest, when they record
interviews, I speak for 20 minutes, then they show only 20 seconds, 10
seconds, whatever fits their agenda. You saw what happened with
Anderson Cooper, Christiane Amanpour, and others. They always try to
manipulate the facts, and they do their best to deviate from the
direction of the conversation into little, negative, details, so that
the audience will have a negative idea of what I am saying.
Simultaneously, as I am speaking, they show a negative video clip on
what’s going on in Syria, accusing the government of doing so and so.
Which means that they are indirectly telling viewers that this
ambassador is not telling the truth. You see how they manipulate?
Christiane Amanpour was lying when she was interviewing me on the
so-called chemical weapons. She was lying, not telling the truth at
all! This is why I told her, “You know what? You also may be a weapon
of mass destruction, because you are poisoning public opinion and
deviating from the main points I’m making.”
AA: You are now under a 25-mile travel ban, how did they justify
imposing this restriction on you?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: Yes. They didn’t give me any reason, they
didn’t explain anything. They just notified me that from now on, you
won’t be able to go beyond 25 miles [of New York City’s Columbus
Circle]. It’s an American sovereign decision. I’m an ambassador to the
United Nations, not to the United States, so maybe they are taking
advantage of that nuance. Of course, it is not justifiable. I have the
right to move according to the Vienna Diplomatic Convention. But if
they want it this way, let it be.
AA: Prior to this, had you been traveling in the US or elsewhere?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: Yes. Maybe my activism caused me this trouble.
AA: Your activism consisted of meeting with members of the
Syrian-American community?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: Yes, meeting with them, explaining to them
what’s going on in Syria. They needed information, they needed to be
briefed about what’s going on in their homeland. They are all
extremely worried, they have families there.
AA: Speaking of traveling, recently, there were reports that you
launched an official complaint at the UN regarding US Senator John
McCain and other heads of states traveling illegally to Syria and
meeting with anti-government fighters.
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: Yes, this is what transpired in the media. I
didn’t ask to circulate the letter, I wanted it to be shared only by
the members of the Security Council, but it was somehow leaked. But I
would like to confirm that, yes, I sent a letter drawing the kind
attention of the secretary-general and the members of the Security
Council to this flagrant and blatant interference in domestic affairs,
this violation of our sovereignty, the illegal crossing of our
borders. Whenever one of those who cross illegally into Syria gets
killed by the terrorists, then the Syrian government is blamed for not
protecting him, although they entered Syria illegally. Many
journalists have been killed, unfortunately. It is unfortunate, but
they are responsible for their own fate. They didn’t enter Syria via
the Syrian government. We would have protected them. We would have
shown them where to go and where not to go. But they had bad
intentions. So, many of them got killed, beheaded, kidnapped.
So, indeed, I forwarded this letter with some specific names, even
though there are thousands, but we gave just some names. John McCain,
an American senator, goes and meets with Da’esh (ISIS) in Aleppo. In
one picture, he was with a man from ISIS. And the other “moderate”
criminals. The American weapons delivered to them ended up in the
hands of al-Nusra Front and Da’esh. All these people are “moderate,”
as you know. Bernard Kouchner, the former French Foreign Minister,
entered Syria illegally, too. Can you imagine that? A senator from the
USA, a former minister from France, Turkish intelligence… and then
they tell you that, “you know what, we are extremely worried about the
spread of terrorism.”
AA: In UN sessions, your microphone has repeatedly had suddenly
“technical difficulties” and been cut, or the video feed has had
sudden inexplicable “technical difficulties”…
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: Many times, many times. I have been the only
Ambassador at the United Nations since 1945 whose speeches were cut
off, or not recorded at all. It has never happened otherwise in UN
meetings. Never. Two of my speeches were not recorded. One, under the
Chairmanship of the former Qatari ambassador… of course, Qatar. But
what adds insult to injury was that Ban Ki-moon himself was at sitting
at the podium, and he supported the move taken by the President of the
General Assembly. That triggered a very negative reaction from many
ambassadors who intervened. The biased position of the
Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly was
obvious from the very first days, thanks to these wrongdoings.
This has been a phenomenon related exclusively to me. Let me
elaborate. Every time I speak, for instance, at the Security Council,
they choose a bad interpreter who is unable to fully interpret what I
am saying. So the people do not get my message. They do it on purpose.
One day, I was invited to address the Security Council. I saw one of
the Security Council staff members addressing the interpreters. He
gave them a hand signal: change. I saw it with my own eyes. So they
changed the good interpreter with a poor one, thus ensuring that my
political message does not transpire fully.
They do the same things in the General Assembly. The British
ambassador cut me off one time while I was speaking. He said “you have
exceeded four minutes.” I said, “Who gave you the right to fix four
minutes? I am a member of a concerned party, and I have the right to
explain.” To justify his wrongdoing, he also cut off the Iraqi
ambassador after me. We were the only two ambassadors speaking at that
session, and it was on Syria and Iraq. The issue was on terrorism in
Syria and Iraq, and he cut off both of us after four minutes!
The UN has lost its credibility. The UN has lost a lot of the
principles of its founding fathers. The UN of today has nothing to do
with the UN of the Charter. This is why everybody has forgotten about
the Charter; people do not speak of the Charter. They don’t speak
about sovereignty, territorial integrity, political independence,
equality among members. Now they speak about the rule of law, human
rights, the environment — because this is very dear to the heart of
the private sector: money — partnerships. Now the Secretary-General is
focused on partnerships, because he wants to privatize the United
Nations.
The budget of peacekeeping operations is three times higher than the
regular budget! Rather than extinguishing the conflicts, and
decreasing the number of peacekeeping operations, we have increased
the peace-keeping operations. We have right now 36 special political
missions, aside from 15 peacekeeping operations. Twenty years ago, we
didn’t have any special political missions. This is a new phenomenon.
By the way, the special political missions and the peace-keeping
operations are not in the Charter. These are some of the ways they are
deviating from the Charter itself. Together they consume $7.9 billion
per year. And they are solving nothing.
When one of the peacekeeping operations, such as the United Nations
Disengagement Observer Force Zone (UNDOF) on the Syrian occupied Golan
makes mistakes, they hide it, they don’t share the information with
the Security Council. For instance, Israel is dealing with Jabhat
al-Nusra (the Nusra Front) right now in the Golan, helping the
terrorists and treating their wounded in Israeli hospitals. Israeli TV
shows Netanyahu visiting them. Still, the report of the
secretary-general denies this fact, and the report of the
Secretary-General does not address this fact, does not acknowledge
that there is cooperation between Israel and the terrorists in the
Golan.
AA: The media accuses President al-Assad of being responsible for
Da’esh, and other terrorists. Who do you blame for the proliferation
of terrorists in Syria?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: I’m sure you’re aware of the alarming reports
of Da’esh coming from Camp Bucca in Iraq, the famous American prison
in Iraq. Al-Baghdadi, the caliph of Da’esh, was at Bucca. He was
released by the Americans, not by the Syrian president. The men who
committed the massacre in Paris, they were fighting in Syria and came
back to France. France allowed them to go to Syria, where they killed
scores of people, and in Iraq. Then they came back, normally, and the
French police let them in. The same terrorists. They are good when
they kill Syrians, and they are bad when they kill the French.
In 2012, Laurent Fabius, the French minister of foreign affairs, said
himself that the jihadists — he didn’t call them terrorists then —
were doing well. The French minister! A permanent member of the
Security Council in charge of maintaining international peace and
security. He described their dirty actions by saying that they are
doing well. The French minister of the interior, who is now the prime
minister of France — the one who was crying over the bodies of the
people killed in Paris — what did he say? At that time, the French
ministers were competing to see who could go furthest in their
animosity towards President al-Assad. “He should step down; he should
go; he should resign.” It was à la mode then. The French minister of
the interior said at the time, “I cannot do anything to prevent and
stop French jihadists from going to make jihad in Syria.” He cannot,
as minister of the interior, stop the terrorists coming from France
from going to Syria to kill Syrians! Through Turkey, of course. Why?
Because freedom of speech, freedom of what… freedom of lies. He
“cannot stop them.”
Now, he can. Now, he knows the outcome of what he did. We warned him,
in our statements: don’t play with the terrorists, they will come back
to you. They thought they were big powers and exempt, immune against
this terrorist disease.
It is said publicly today that the Americans with the Turks will start
training the terrorists in Turkey in spring. It has become public, no
shame whatsoever. The Jordanians are doing the same, in secret camps
in the northern part of Jordan, run by the French and the British and
the Americans. The same thing in Saudi Arabia. The same thing in Doha
and Qatar. This is scandalous behaviour.
That’s why I say, there’s no United Nations anymore, it’s over.
Multilateral diplomacy is not working, it’s being manipulated by the
powerful. This is why they want to privatize the United Nations, so
that the influential donors can control the decision-making
mechanisms, without giving a damn about the provisions of the Charter.
We are member states, and we are here based on this famous concept and
principle of equal sovereignty. All that has disappeared, it’s about
business now. Can you believe that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring the
United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre? Can you believe for a second
that Qatar is sponsoring the committee for alliance amongst
civilizations, the dialogue among cultures and civilizations and
religions? They are buying the UN with dirty money.
AA: In reference to Syria’s destroyed heritage, US Secretary of State
John Kerry has implied that it is America’s duty to protect Syria’s
heritage. What is your take on his statement in light of the US’
involvement in the Syrian war?
Ambassador al-Ja’afari: This man is disconnected from reality, totally
disconnected. I heard this from an American man who fought with him in
Vietnam. He told me, “This man has always been disconnected.” But,
he’s not the only one.
On the other hand, there are many honest senators and genuine people
in Congress who opposed the American administration’s plan to attack
Syria. There are genuine people, and the American constitution is
based on beautiful values. Once applied, that is.
Eva Bartlett is a Canadian freelance journalist and activist who has
lived in and written from the Gaza Strip, Syria, and Lebanon. [This
interview was published originally in the English-language edition of
Al-Akhbar, a daily newspaper in Beirut.]