A Day in Syria: April 11th 2018
By Caroline Pearse & H. E.
- Several representatives of the member states of the Security Council left the room yesterday during the speech by Al-Jaafari, the representative of the Syrian regime. The regime claims that the opposition has « gassed » itself in Douma to set a trap for it.
- At the end of the public meeting of the Security Council yesterday, in camera consultations were held, which indicated that Washington wished to submit a text to the vote as early as Tuesday. The text provides for a United Nations independent investigation mechanism (UNIMI) on the use of chemical weapons in Syria. It also contains condemnations of the Syrian regime, adding that those responsible for any use of chemical weapons will be held accountable.
- Today two American destroyers approached the Syrian coasts in the Mediterranean Sea. According to Sputnik, the Russian news site, Russian bombers have flown over one of these destroyers.
- According to RTBF TV, the UN doesn’t have an investigative body dedicated to chemical attacks in Syria since the dissolution end of the JIM (Joint Investigative Mechanism), a UN-OPCW group (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) whose mandate has not been renewed due to several Russian vetoes, in 2017.
- Concerning the chemical attack in Syria, the French Prime Minister, Edouard Philippe, responded to questions to the Government in the National Assembly saying that « in the face of the seriousness of the acts, France assumes all its responsibilities, there is no credible diplomacy without strong and united political decision.”
- Yesterday’s explosion in Idlib led to 17 victims and 154 injured according to the Syrian White helmets. The search operations are still in progress.
- Several civilian casualties and injured persons were recorded today due to aerial raids on the Al-Naqeer village in the south of Idlib. Also today a man and a child were killed by missiles that targeted the town of Jisr Al-Shughour.
- Today the artillery of the regime bombarded the locality of Zeitane in the South province of Aleppo.
- Lebanon said today that it wants to lodge a complaint with the Security Council against Israel’s use of its airspace to bomb Syria two days ago.
- According to militants, the Syrian regime today released 40 detainees from Hama prison. Most of them have finished their sentences.
- The fourth wave of deportees from the town of Douma in Eastern Ghouta arrived today at the passage Abu al-Zendein, west of the city of Al-Bab in Aleppo in the areas controlled by the opposition in the north of Syria.
- Panos Moumtzis, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Syrian crisis: nearly 700,000 displaced since the beginning of the year. “I am deeply concerned about the continuing displacement due to the ongoing hostilities in the country.”
- A session of Caesar’s testimony was organized today in the EU. Caesar had leaked photos of thousands of detainees killed under torture in the prisons of the Syrian regime.