Thank you Mr. President,

We are grateful to Mrs. Rochdi and Mr. Rajasingham for their comprehensive briefings and Mr. Pedersen for his service, dialogue and cooperation over the challenging and stressful years.

The Syrian government has achieved significant progress since last December despite the magnitudes of the challenges. The engagement with international community is also advancing in a steady and constructive manner.

The political process is moving step by step. The recent elections to the People’s Assembly reflected the government’s commitment to an inclusive national dialogue. Diplomats who served in Syria like myself know very well it was one of the basic and fundamental aspirations and expectations of the Syrian people over decades leading to the Revolution. All national efforts aimed at safeguarding Syria’s unity and territorial integrity deserve our full support.

We believe that normalization in Syria will gain momentum once all natural resources are managed by the Syrian Government for all Syrians.

We also believe that lifting the remaining sanctions is important and we support efforts aimed in this direction.

The Syrian authorities have shown willingness to empower the local bodies administratively and fiscally. This is a welcome development. However, those demands that could undermine national cohesion should be avoided.

Local communities continue to express growing dissatisfaction with the so-called “SDF.” We note with concern the so-called “SDF”s ideological and coercive practices that have deepened local tensions. The closure of Christian schools for rejecting the imposed curriculum of the so-called “SDF” has caused serious discontent among the Christian community.
The 10 March Agreement should not turn into an open-ended exercise. All provinces in the northeast should be swiftly reintegrated with the central government in terms of military, security, and civilian structures.

Control of camps and detention centres must also return to the Syrian Government. The international community should rely on the Syrian government to run a healthy and accelerated repatriation from the camps.

We importantly further call for Israel’s withdrawal from the buffer zone and the areas it occupied after 8 December. It is essential to uphold the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and to ensure full respect for the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and to respect territorial integrity and sovereignty of all countries in the region.

Thank you.