UN envoy warns terrorism is ‘resurging’ with attacks by Islamic State extremists

The top UN envoy for Syria told the Security Council on Monday that the threat of terrorism is “resurging” with attacks by Islamic State extremists set to double this year, endangering civilians already facing a “protracted state of displacement and dire humanitarian conditions”.

UN special envoy Geir Pedersen said Syria is “riddled with armed actors, listed terrorist groups, foreign armies and front-lines” 13 years after president Bashar Assad’s crackdown on peaceful protests against his government turned to civil war.

Nearly a half million people have died in the conflict and half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced.

The Islamic State group declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014.

It was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that killed tens of thousands of people and left cities in ruins, but its sleeper cells remain in both countries.

“The threat of regional conflict cascading over Syria has not abated, particularly with an uptick in Israeli strikes on Syria,” Mr Pedersen said.

Israel has attacked targets in Syria linked to Iran for years, but the strikes have escalated over the past five months as the war in Gaza and conflict between Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israeli forces on the Lebanon-Israel border continue.

US deputy ambassador Robert A Wood blamed Iran, Mr Assad’s greatest regional supporter, for the violence in Syria.

“Iran and its proxies and partners have only brought death and destruction and do nothing to help the Syrian people,” Mr Wood said, calling on Mr Assad to curb Iran’s influence.

The Syrian, Iranian, and Russian ambassadors to the UN strongly condemned Israel’s strikes on Syria.

Iranian ambassador Amir Saeed Iravani said the attacks “flagrantly violate international humanitarian law” and are a “serious threat to regional peace and security”.

He said Israel’s strikes add to the chaos created by Syria’s civil war.

Over 16 million people in Syria currently need humanitarian assistance and 7.2 million remain displaced in the “worst humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict”, Ramesh Rajasingham, co-ordination director in the UN humanitarian office, told the council.

He added that “severely reduced humanitarian funding” exacerbates Syrians’ suffering during months of extreme heat when rainwater dries up and a lack of basic sanitation infrastructure increases the risk of water-borne diseases.

Mr Rajasingham and Mr Pedersen called for increased humanitarian access to Syria and international funding. The 2024 UN humanitarian appeal for 4 billion dollars (£3 million) remains only 20% funded, “seriously constraining” humanitarian work, Mr Rajasingham said.

On the political front, Mr Pedersen urged the Security Council to pursue Syrian-led peace negotiations with the involvement of “all major international stakeholders”, in line with a unanimously adopted 2015 resolution by the council.

“The conflict is ultimately a political one that can only be resolved when the Syrian parties are able to realise their legitimate aspirations,” Mr Pedersen said.

Last week, Syria announced that all 185 candidates from Mr Assad’s Baath party won parliamentary seats in the country’s elections, a seven-seat increase to the party’s majority.

Mr Pedersen said the elections are “not a substitute” for the political process outlined in the 2015 Security Council resolution, while Mr Wood called the elections a “sham” and a “rubber stamp on Bashar Al-Assad’s continued dictatorship”.

Mr Wood said the US “will not normalise relations with the Syrian regime or lift sanctions absent an authentic and enduring political solution”.