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S/2014/815, annex) on the phenomenon of foreign terrorist fighters. That is, then, what the Council is saying. So, could the Council explain to us exactly what the Syrian crisis has to do with the smuggling of all types of weapons from Libya, Lebanon, Turkey and other of Syria’s neighbours in the very early stages of the crisis? Is there a relationship between the crisis in Syria and the religious fatwas based on a state of jahiliyyah that were issued in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other countries on jihad, on fighting infidels in Syria and on the slaughter of so-called minorities? It is not possible to talk about ending the suffering and pain of Syrians inside and outside Syria and about ending the humanitarian crisis in the country while remaining silent about the fact that some countries continue to allow their territories to be used as a base and a crossing point for terrorists heading into Syria. It is not possible to end the humanitarian crisis while some continue to use terrorism as an instrument to implement their own political agendas. It is also obvious that an end to this crisis will not be achieved as long as some persist in refusing to believe that the solution can only come through Syrian-Syrian national dialogue led by the Syrians themselves without any external interference. The sponsors of terrorist groups caused the Geneva II conference to fail and sought to make the first and second meetings in Moscow also fail, and recently even caused Special Envoy de Mistura’s proposal to “freeze” the conflict in the city of Aleppo to fail, whereas the Syrian Government had agreed to it in the hopes that it would improve the humanitarian situation there. Last but not least, is it consistent for certain countries to claim to be eager to improve the humanitarian situation while they impose illegal coercive measures on the Syrian people? Is that eagerness to improve the situation also consistent with the fact that some countries prefer to generously — very generously — fund so-called moderate terrorism rather than fund the humanitarian response plan, which has only received 16 per cent of the funds pledged for 2015? Some colleagues in this Chamber insist on claiming that the Syrian Government is besieging some areas and preventing the entry of humanitarian aid to civilians there. Such claims are both naive and misleading. The areas in question were previously safe and stable, with no crises — humanitarian or non-humanitarian — at all, until so-called moderate terrorist groups entered those areas, using civilians as human shields, and seized or prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid. Those areas then became besieged from within rather than from without — by those moderate terrorist groups, including ISIL and the Al-Nusra Front. Faced with that situation, it was necessary for the Syrian Government, pursuant to its duty — like that of any responsible Government — to protect its citizens, to fight the terrorist groups and work to prevent them from expanding into other secure civilian areas, thus preventing them from creating new humanitarian crises in those areas. The best evidence of the validity of what we have been reporting to the Council in that regard is what happened recently in the Yarmouk camp, which some here have accused the Syrian Government of besieging. How could that camp be under siege by the Government when it was ISIL that managed to break into it with the help of the Al-Nusrah Front? If the camp was being besieged by the Syrian Army or the Government, how did the Al-Nusrah Front manage to enter it? Among those who accuse the Syrian Government of besieging the Yarmouk camp, is there anyone who can answer that question? Is there anyone who can explain to us why terrorist groups continue to get into and out of those areas, including Yarmouk camp, areas that are referred to as being under siege by the Government? Is there anyone who can explain to us how it is that civilians are being displaced from within those areas that are said to be besieged and that those people find their way out, seeking refuge in areas controlled by the Government? If the Syrian Government is the one that is shelling those people, why are those people then seeking refuge in areas under the control of the Syrian Government in order to flee the acts of terrorists? I would like to explain the facts to those who are trying to distort the situation in Yarmouk today and who are trying to mislead people through their poisonous attempts to demonize the Syrian Government. In the Yarmouk camp before the crisis, that is, before 2011, there were 500,000 people, 200,000 of whom were Palestinian refugees from the Israeli aggression in Palestinian lands, people who had been expelled from their land; the remainder were Syrian citizens. In other words, the number of Syrians in the Yarmouk camp was larger than the number of Palestinian refugees in that camp. The Syrian Government helped all the residents to safely leave the camp after it was stormed by the terrorists. The Government provided them with shelter and basic living necessities. The Government of Syria, and not the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs nor Ms. Amos, secured a decent livelihood for the 500,000 inside the Yarmouk camp. Today, there are only 1,000 people in the camp, and not 18,000, as has been alleged. There are no children or women among the residents there. There are only terrorists and some male citizens, totalling fewer than 1,000. They are the ones in the camp today, at the very moment that I am speaking here before the Security Council. Syria has hosted millions of refugees from several neighbouring countries. I shall not name those countries, as this is not charity that we extend. We have never used the plight of our brothers for financial or political manipulation. We have not established refugee camps along our borders — something that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East have both acknowledged. Unfortunately, however, it seems that some States have not benefited from this noble Syrian experience. On the contrary, since the beginning of the crisis, some have sought to create a refugee and displaced persons crisis in Syria in order to use it as a pretext to exert political pressure and financial manipulation and in justifying their interventionist agendas. I have already mentioned that the storming of the safe neighbourhoods by the armed terrorist groups is what forced the residents in those areas to leave their homes and become internally displaced persons or refugees in camps that were prepared for them in advance. I say in advance because we have evidence of that fact, the latest of which comes from a recently published book by a former French Ambassador, entitled Tempête sur le Grand Moyen Orient. In it, the author tells of visiting Iraqi Kurdistan in 2009, where he saw many camps being built. When he asked why the camps were being built, he was told they were for the Syrian refugees who would come to Kurdistan later. At the time, there was no crisis in Syria and no Arab Spring. There was nothing at all in 2009. Asylum-seeking and displacement happen only in areas infiltrated by terrorists, as is the case in Idlib and Aleppo and several other cities. The best way to help Syrian refugees and displaced persons is to enable them to return to their homeland by addressing the reasons that led to their displacement or their becoming refugees. To that end, there must be serious and full implementation of resolutions 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014) and 2199 (2015). It also requires genuine political will on the part of some powerful Member States on the Security Council to exert pressure on States such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and others to stop funding, arming, training and providing logistical support to terrorists. Would it not be better to spend the funds pledged to the response plan on helping Syrian refugees and displaced persons return to their homeland? Once again, I would like to reiterate that the Syrian Government is committed to its duties and responsibilities to alleviate the humanitarian burden of its people. We are fully ready to take all the necessary steps at the national level to achieve that. In that regard, we will continue our cooperation with the United Nations and to facilitate its tasks. However, that cooperation is not a one-way street; the United Nations is required to abide by the Organization’s guiding principles on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as set out in General Assembly resolution 46/182. It must also cooperate and coordinate with the Syrian Government on the various humanitarian issues, rather than resorting to suspicion, provocation and criticism, which are fruitless. The United Nations and other international organizations did not succeed in delivering humanitarianmanitarian assistance to around 4 million Syrians per month without the cooperation and facilitation of the Syrian Government. Finally, I heard no comment or criticism of the relationship between Israel and the Al-Nusra Front in the area of disengagement in the occupied Syria Golan. I heard no comment or criticism of the relationship between Turkey and the terrorists, in particular given that, as mentioned by one of our colleagues, the head of one of the biggest terrorist gangs in the Douma suburb of Damascus is now carrying out a secret visit to Turkey to meet with the intelligence services with a view to perpetrating further terrorist acts in Damascus. By the way, that man is responsible for the killing of scores of innocent civilians in Damascus via rockets and shelling