Fu Cong photo: VCG

China is greatly concerned about the reports that said the Syrian army has recently granted senior military ranks to a number of foreign terrorist fighters, including the head of a Council-listed terrorist organization, the Turkistan Islamic Party, also known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, said Fu Cong, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations, at the UN Security Council Briefing on Syria on Wednesday, while calling on Syria to fulfill its counter-terrorism obligations and to prevent any terrorist forces from using the Syrian territory to threaten the security of other countries.

Fu said the situation in Syria is at a critical stage with daunting challenges. The international community should strengthen solidarity and coordinate its actions to support and help Syria achieve stability and development, according to a statement published on the website of the Permanent Mission of China to the UN.

No matter how the domestic situation in Syria develops, the bottom line of zero tolerance for terrorism cannot be changed. The Council recently issued a press statement on Syria, making it clear that states should combat all terrorist organizations listed by the Council and deny safe haven for terrorists, said Fu.

The opposition forces that overthrew Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria are a mix of extremist groups and terrorist organizations, Liu Zhongmin, a professor from the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Thursday.

This has largely raised concerns from the outside regarding a significant issue, as the opposition is primarily composed of two major factions, Liu noted, adding that the future political transition process in Syria, particularly the struggle between extremist factions and secular groups, is likely to influence the country’s political arrangements, Liu said.

Amid Syria’s political transformation, there is a certain degree of power vacuum in the domestic political landscape. The ongoing turmoil in Syria, combined with the regional instability caused by the spillover effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, could provide a breeding ground for the proliferation of extremism and terrorism, said Liu.

China’s position on counter-terrorism has always been consistent: it firmly opposes all forms of terrorism and calls for all nations to reject double standards in their counter-terrorism actions, Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Fudan University, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The Syrian interim government should uphold its responsibility to the nation’s future and its people, firmly taking a stand against terrorism to ensure that Syria does not become a haven for extremist organizations and terrorist activities, which aligns with the fundamental interests of its people, Sun said.
Global Times