United Nations

S/2013/172
Distr.: General 19 March 2013 English Original: Arabic

Security Council

Identical letters dated 19 March 2013 from the Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council
On instructions from the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic, I should like to draw your attention to the following: At 0730 hours this morning, in a dangerous escalation of the crimes that the armed terrorist groups are committing in the north of Syria, those groups fired a rocket from the Kafr Da`il area towards Khan al-Asal in Aleppo governorate, some 5 km away. The missile fell in a civilian-populated area, some 300 metres from a Syrian Arab army position. Its impact was followed by a thick cloud of smoke, which left unconscious anyone who inhaled it. The explosion of the missile and the gases that were emitted have so far caused the death of 25 persons and the injury of more than 110 civilians and soldiers, who have all been taken to hospital in Aleppo. In identical letters dated 8 December 2012 that the Syrian Arab Republic addressed to the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, which were issued as document A/67/628-S/2012/917, Syria has already expressed its genuine concern that certain States that support terrorism and terrorists could provide the armed terrorist groups with chemical weapons, and then claim they had been used by the Syrian Government. It has also warned of the dangers of failing to take action to ensure that outlawed weapons do not fall into the hands of Al-Nusrah Front and other Al-Qaida-affiliated groups, particularly after those groups gained control of a private sector factory to the east of Aleppo that contains tons of toxic chlorine, and media reports that Al-Qaida elements have threatened to use against the Syrian Arab people chemical weapons that they are producing in a laboratory near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, with a view to claiming that it was the Syrian Government that used those weapons. The videos that were made available on the Internet at the time showed how toxic gases have been made, and tested on living creatures, using chemical materials that Al-Qaida has obtained from a Turkish company.

The Syrian Government has also previously warned of the risk that those terrorist groups could resort to using such weapons against the Syrian people, and is convinced that the international community's failure to take any steps to address developments in the situation of which it was warned or hold those who support the terrorist groups accountable, in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions, in addition to the calls that have been made by certain European Union and Arab League States to arm those terrorist groups, have encouraged those groups to carry out the vile crime that was committed this morning. The Syrian Arab Republic, while reiterating the commitment that it has made on scores of occasions, through the diplomatic channel and in public, and which it has conveyed to the Secretary-General and the Security Council, to the effect that it would never use any chemical weapons which it may have against its own people, will proceed with its constitutional obligation to pursue the terrorists and their supporters, out of concern for the security and safety of its people. Syria calls upon the international community to take serious and determined action to prevent those terrorist groups from continuing to commit their dangerous crimes against the Syrian people, by halting the financial, military, logistical, political and media support which is provided by the States that support the terrorist groups, in particular, Turkey, Qatar and certain Western States, without any thought for the consequences of that support for innocent Syrian civilians, whose blood is being spilled by those terrorist groups. I should be grateful if this letter could be issued as an official document of the Security Council. (Signed) Bashar Ja'afari Ambassador Permanent Representative of the Syrian Arab Republic