UNITED NATIONS, February 27. /TASS/. The difference between the United States’ policy toward Syria compared to Israel is a clear show of double standards, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said.
"The United States’ invasion of Syria under the false pretexts of fighting against terrorism continues to play an extremely destructive role. This situation vividly reveals Washington’s blatant double standards: our American colleagues are seeking to whitewash Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (outlawed in Russia) terrorists, who control the Idlib governorate and who have been blacklisted by the UN Security Council, while condemning Damascus and its allies for fighting them," he said at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
"At the same time, the US is trying to present Israel’s inhumane and bloody military operation against civilians in the Gaza Strip, which is alleged to be a clampdown on Hamas, as a fight against terrorism and Israel exercising its right to self-defense," he said.
The Russian diplomat stated that the humanitarian situation in Syria keeps getting worse due to "the large-scale damage done over years of crisis and as a result of last year’s earthquake on the border with Turkey, the suffocating illegal unilateral sanctions, Syria’s natural resources being plundered by the US occupational forces, and the exorbitant politicization of the humanitarian dossier inn general."
"The issue of Syria’s recovery is being squeezed out of the humanitarian agenda by the United States and its satellites," Nebenzya said. "In this context, we are deeply disappointed with the absolute lack of principles with the Western donors who are boasting their contributions on Syrian refugees in third countries. As a matter of fact, these people find themselves doomed to languish in tent camps, with their survival being totally dependent on humanitarian aid. And this is instead of offering real assistance to Syria to help it develop and overhaul its infrastructure so that refugees could return to their homes.".