Syria's permanent envoy to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari said that all the Saudis who traveled to fight in Syria were known to Saudi intelligence.
Jaafari said many of those who travelled to fight in Syria had previously been sentenced to death or to life imprisonment for terrorism and were released from prison to fight Jihad in Syria.
"The Saudi authorities released those criminals – the majority of them are affiliated to extremist, terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda – and sent them to Syria through hidden agreements like amnesty in return for their travelling to Syria to kill Syrians," Jaafari said in a press statement following a U.N. Security Council session in New York.
He said terrorists enter Syria through borders with Jordan, Lebanon while the others come through Turkey, facilitated by the Turkish and Qatari intelligence.
"At the same time, the Security Council recognizes that the Nusra Front is a terrorist organization and the other groups are terrorists, some international officials name them as opposition," Jaafari said.
On the number of victims in Syria, the Syrian envoy said: "We regret the death of any Syrian citizen and ask: Do you inform me about the number of soldiers when you count the number of the victims? The number of policemen, women or those who died because of suicide explosions? The answer should be taken into consideration, noting that all the victims are Syrians, and many of them were killed at the hands of the armed terrorist groups which are active in Syria by the instigation of external parties."
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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