Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari has said fighting terrorism would be impossible without coordinating with the legitimate government in Syria and the Syrian Arab Army.
Commenting on recent French airstrikes in Syria, Jaafari told Russia’s TASS news agency that French President Francois Hollande did not coordinate with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, adding the French military have behaved without concordance with the Syrian armed forces.
France has no right to fight terrorism unilaterally, even as a member of the so-called the alliance, Jaafari said, adding that France’s role in the US-backed alliance is not based on UN Security Council resolutions and is not unanimously backed.
Sources told TASS that the office of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was not informed about French strikes.
Jaafari responded to Hollande’s public statement refusing the role of President Assad in a future Syria, stating that by calling for regime change, “Hollande contradicts the UN Charter … Such words show ignorance; mainly they were uttered at the UN headquarters.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova underlined earlier that the French air strikes, without UN Security Council authorization and the approval of the legitimate government of the country, are in violation of international law.
