DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syria’s ambassador to the UN says the prime objective of the U.S.-led military coalition, which is purportedly fighting the Daesh, is supporting terrorists operating in the Arab country.
Bashar Ja’afari said in a statement to the UN Security Council that the U.S. presence in Syria violates the 15-member body's resolutions and the UN Charter.
He also accused the U.S., France and Britain of having "made every effort to undermine Syria and its people and exploit the media to reach this end, distort the reality of what is happening and mislead the public opinion regarding the humanitarian suffering of civilians due to the practices of armed terrorist groups."
He further stressed that "the main task of U.S.-led coalition is supporting terrorists in Syria," citing the February 8 "illegitimate attack" on pro-government forces fighting Daesh in Syria's eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province as a proof.
"The U.S. decision on military intervention in Syria was illegitimate and unilateral under the pretext of fighting the Daesh terrorist organization, then Washington declared that it wants to establish military bases to preserve the strategic security and the security of its allies and later on it made clear that they are in Syria to create armed militias which will control oil, gas and water resources and establish a mini-state," he said.
The U.S. and its allies back terrorists fighting to topple the Syrian government. They have also been bombarding what they call Daesh positions inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.
In another development in Syria, the government is reportedly set to deploy troops to the northern district of Afrin, which has been the target of a month-long Turkish offensive, as part of an agreement with the Kurdish militants operating there.
Citing "special” sources, Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen broadcaster reported Thursday that Damascus had reached an agreement with militants of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) to station troops in Afrin with the aim of countering Turkish military attacks.
Russia’s Sputnik news agency also quoted a source familiar with the situation as saying that Syrian forces would enter the flashpoint region within "the next few days.”
"The agreement has been reached on the deployment of the Syrian Armed Forces at the Syrian-Turkish border in Afrin in the north of Aleppo in the next few days. The agreement was reached between the Syrian government and the Kurds,” the source said.
According to Sputnik, the U.S., a longtime supporter of the anti-Damascus Kurdish militants, has no knowledge of the deal.
Ankara views the YPG as a terror organization linked to the homegrown militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy on Turkish soil over the past decades.
Angered by a Washington plan to set up a 30,000-strong Kurdish force at its doorstep, Turkey launched on January 19 the so-called Operation Olive Branch in northern Syria to cleanse those regions of the YPG, which forms the primary component of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The photo taken on March 5, 2017 shows a convoy of U.S. armored vehicles driving near the village of Yalanli, on the western outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Manbij.