Syria Urges UN Reform amid Exploitation by Western States

Syria's permanent representative to the UN, Bassam Sabbagh, has called for a review of the organization's working mechanisms to prevent their exploitation by some Western countries in the service of their destructive policies and agendas.

Sabbagh made the remarks during a UN Security Council session on "Purpose and Principles of the UN Charter in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security and effective pluralism through defending the principles of the United Nations Charter". He said that over the past decade, Syria has been a victim of the loss of true pluralism and the exploitation of the UN system by some countries as a platform to serve their hostile and interventionist policies in its affairs.

Sabbagh added that Syria's national wealth and resources are being plundered by foreign forces that are illegitimately present in its territories, exacerbating the humanitarian suffering of its people due to unilateral, illegitimate, inhumane and immoral coercive measures imposed on them. He stressed that preserving true pluralism requires reforming current structures, including expanding the Security Council to reflect the new reality of international relations and reforming international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to respond to the interests of developing countries and countries of the South.

Sabbagh concluded by noting that the UN multilateral system has faced many challenges in dealing with political, economic, and social crises, which has led to an abject failure to prevent the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the inability to end the tragedy of the Palestinian people suffering due to Israeli occupation, increasing terrorist threats, pandemics and diseases, and exacerbating human suffering due to poverty, hunger, thirst, and lack of medical care. He called for increased effectiveness and efficiency of the UN's work to raise their credibility at the international level and achieve the objectives sought by the United Nations system's founding fathers.