Syria's Ambassador in Brazil and head of the Syrian delegation participating in Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Mohammad Khaddour, affirmed Syria's commitment to carrying out the resolutions of the conferences it participated in, noting that Syria was among the first countries to seek achieving sustainable development goals and to integrate environmentalism in its five-year plans.
In his speech at the conference, Khaddour said that the issues related to the Millennium Development Goals such as combating poverty, improving living standards, education, health, education, women empowerment and protecting the environment have been a big part of Syria's development strategies, which is parallel to signing international agreements and protocols and committing to their implementation.
Khaddour reviewed the challenges facing Syria such as climate change and global warming which result in droughts, which affects all sectors and undermines regional stability, pointing out to the Israeli occupation's persistence in occupied Arab lands including the occupied Syrian Golan and its draining of their resources.
He said that Israel has forcibly displaced more than half a million Syrians from the Golan and continues to torment those who remained, noting that Israel steals 1.5 billion cubic liters of water from the Golan's springs and underground reserves, in addition to burying nuclear and toxic waste in it and planting mines.
Khaddour called for forcing Israel to comply with international resolutions regarding the occupied Syrian Golan and desist from exploiting or wasting its natural resources and harming the environment.
He also pointed out to harm perpetrated by Israel against ancient Christian and Islamic sites in the occupied Golan.
Khaddour then underlined the pressures and economic sanctions leveled against Syria which hinder sustainable development due to the difficulty of obtaining advanced technology due to the US-European embargos.
He underlined the practices carried out by armed terrorist groups in Syria for over a year which harm the environment, individuals and general health, as these groups attacked infrastructure, hindered public services, attacked water networks, and stole large quantities of fertilizers to manufacture explosives.
Khaddour went on to stress that all that didn't prevent Syria from working to achieve sustainable development in the framework of joint responsibility by the government and the society, with Syria's new constitution covering several basis regarding providing the basic needs of society and individuals through economic development and social justice, leading to comprehensive, balanced and sustainable development.
He affirmed the Syrian government's commitment to bolstering the institutional framework of sustainable development, stressing that advanced countries must take into account the needs of developing countries and fulfill their obligations in supporting them.
Khaddour said that the desired institutional framework must not become a burden to developing countries, and that there should be no conditions to providing development aid to developing countries; rather technical and financial support should be provided to them -including Syria - to allow access to advanced technology and localize it, especially technology related to vital projects such as clean development mechanism projects and building national capabilities, adding that green economy must not replace sustainable development, but rather become a tool for achieving social and economic development and protecting the environment.
© SANA (Syria Arab News Agency) 2012
