The U.N. Security Council a couple of days ago approved a draft resolution prepared by Sweden and Kuwait, the term chair for February. Unanimously accepted, the resolution demands a humanitarian cease-fire of at least 30 days in Syria to allow deliveries of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of the seriously sick and wounded. The resolution focuses on ending sieges, especially in Eastern Ghouta, Yarmuk and al-Fuah where the regime has been massacring civilians. This is a good step. However, the U.S., which has been in close cooperation with various terrorist organizations such as the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Syrian branch of the PKK, is exploiting the U.N. cease-fire decision.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert's latest statement, that includes Turkey's Afrin operation with the cease-fire resolution, seems to be proof of this. Nauert said that the cease-fire covers the whole of the country with the exception of fighting against al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida, and Daesh and the groups and individuals affiliated with them. He said: "I would encourage Turkey to go back and read this resolution [that] demands that all parties cease hostilities … for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria." Nauert should keep her opinions to herself, as the resolution mentions the scope of the cease-fire as follows: "It affirms that the cessation of hostilities shall not apply to military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, ISIL, also known as Daesh, al-Qaida, and al-Nusrah Front, and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with al-Qaida and ISIL and other terror groups as designated by the Security Council."A United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report issued on Feb. 7 on the recent developments in northwestern Syria elaborates on the terrorist actions of YPG in Afrin against which Turkey has been carrying out an operation, such as using civilians as a human shields, recruiting Afrin's people, including children and the elderly, forcing them to migrate and carrying out civilian massacres.
All this data on the YPG is compatible with reports from institutions such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR). For months, the U.S. has been violating international law by arming the YPG, the Syrian affiliate of the PKK, which it defines as a terrorist organization. Now, it is contravening the U.N.'s legitimacy, using a humanitarian measure on Syria as a shield for its trapped terrorists in Afrin.
Enough is enough. The whole world, and regional countries in particular, are sick of such double standards from the U.S. Sovereign states do not have to shape their counterterrorism perspectives in line with the interests of the Pentagon and the CIA. Washington is doomed to lose as long as it ignores this global revolt.
