Syria: "We reiterate our call for a nationwide ceasefire." [fr]

Thank you, Madam President,

I thank Geir Pedersen and Martin Griffiths for their interventions. I would like to emphasize three points.

First, I regret, once again, the lack of a political process.

While the situation remains volatile, especially in northern Syria, we reiterate our call for a nationwide ceasefire.

However, the Syrian regime still refuses to engage in a political process as defined by Resolution 2254, a resolution that was adopted unanimously by this Council, I recall. The constitutional committee no longer meets. The regime refuses to work with the United Nations on the fate of more than 100,000 missing persons, a figure unprecedented in our history. And finally, the regime does not want to engage in the "step for step" approach that is promoted by the Special Envoy and that we support.

Madam President,

The United Nations has amply documented the atrocities committed by the regime during the twelve years of war. The use of sexual violence is systematic, including on children, in the regime’s detention facilities. The Sednaya prison, which is located in a regime-held zone, is a place known for the abuses committed there.

And it is on the basis of UN reports and the testimonies of Syrians that the European Union has adopted targeted sanctions aimed at the perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria. They include numerous humanitarian exemptions so as not to hinder the delivery of humanitarian aid, which, I would also remind you, is largely financed by the European Union and its Member States. Together, they have mobilized more than 27.4 billion dollars since 2011.

This is why, in the absence of any progress on the political process in Syria, French and European positions on the lifting of sanctions, on normalization and on reconstruction remain unchanged.

Secondly, I would like to remind you of the regime’s responsibility for the humanitarian tragedy taking place in Syria.

Madam President,

The brutality of the repression has caused the largest population displacement of the 21st century. Many major Syrian cities have been bombed or even completely destroyed by the regime and its allies.

The twelve million displaced persons or refugees aspire to return to Syria when the conditions are right. Today, many refugees do not wish to return, according to the UNHCR, for fear of reprisals, forced conscription or because their property has been confiscated. I remind you that the few hundred people who have chosen to return to Syria have not been able to do so without obtaining prior agreement from the regime to cross the border. These security checks are coupled with administrative detention on arrival in places to which the UN usually has no access. Numerous cases of torture, enforced disappearances and executions have been reported in these detention facilities. And given the extent of the persecution, many returning refugees are therefore seeking to leave Syria again.

Madam President,

This is a deliberate policy of demographic engineering that continues today. The international community cannot be complicit in this.

Thirdly and finally, only humanitarian assistance under the aegis of the United Nations, in accordance with the rules of international humanitarian law, can help the Syrian population.

The latest report of the Secretary-General is unambiguous: as the interventions of the Special Envoy and Martin Griffiths have also reminded us, the needs are ever greater, and the prospects for 2023 extremely worrying. The report highlights the essential, vital nature of the cross-border mechanism, both in terms of the volumes of aid deployed and the number of beneficiaries. This aid is the only means of survival for more than two million Syrians every month.

Madam President,

The aid deployed across the front lines is complementary, it is important, but it is not a substitute for cross-border aid.

And as the Secretary-General has stressed, renewing the mechanism is therefore a moral imperative.

France fully supports this objective. This operation, implemented under the aegis of the United Nations, makes it possible to ensure compliance with Security Council resolutions which, I would remind you, are binding on all parties.

I thank you.