Syria's foreign minister accused Turkey on Saturday of being one of the main sponsors of terror in his country and the region, and said it is "guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity" for cutting water to more than a dozen towns that resisted Turkish occupation.
In unusually harsh language, Walid al-Moallem said in a pre-recorded speech to the first-ever high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly held virtually because of the pandemic that the cutoff of water supplies endangered civilian lives, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The nine-year Syrian conflict, which initially began as a civil war, later became a regional proxy fight. Turkey, which now controls a zone in northern Syria, has backed opposition fighters against Syrian President Bashar Assad, Syrian Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State extremist group.
Al-Moallem also accused Turkey of moving terrorists and mercenaries referred to by some as 'moderate opposition', from Syria to Libya, violating Iraq's sovereignty, using refugees as bargaining chips against Europe and laying claim by force to energy resources in the Mediterranean. The current Turkish regime has become a rogue and outlaw regime under international law, the Syrian minister said. Its policies and actions, which threaten the security and stability of the whole region, must be stopped. Al-Moallem declared that the Syrian government will spare no effort to end the occupation by all means possible under international law of American and Turkish forces.
US troops are deployed in the country to fight the Islamic State group.
The actions of these forces, taken directly or through their terrorist agents, secessionist militias, or manufactured and illegitimate entities, are null and void, with no legal effect, he said.
