In addition the statements from the delegation, Ambassador Jaafari also addressed the press. He began by lamenting the terrible relations between the U.S. government and Syria, noting that Washington closed its embassy in Damascus several years earlier. From his office at the UN, he noted, “I’m restricted to travel no further than 25 miles. I don’t know why.”

The American mainstream media, especially Fox News, were openly disrespectful of the ambassador. They questioned him about the humanitarian crisis in his country and the remaining 7% of chemical weapons stockpiles that had still to be destroyed.

In response, Jaafari told a story about Luxembourg and Australia’s ambassadors coming to him recently with an offer to help on the humanitarian issue. He proposed that they assist the relief effort for the U.S./NATO-sponsored war by providing wheelchairs. They said they would test the waters, and never came back to him. He remarked, “Speaking of improving the humanitarian situation in Syria is one thing; doing something about it is different.”

In the hallway after the session, the reporters were badgering the ambassador with questions about aligning Syria with the U.S. to oppose the Al Qaeda type group, ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), that has been at war with Syria for over a year and has now invaded Iraq. When one reporter returned to the issue again of disposing of the remaining chemical weapons in Syria, he answered, “We’ll destroy the remaining weapons when NATO stops arming the terrorists.”

About ISIS, Jaafari said, “It’s not ‘Who is ISIS?’ The issue is, who is behind ISIS, funding, training, helping them cross the border. The FOX News reporter responded aggressively, “Are you going to tell us?” To which the ambassador responded, “Who is backing ISIS? The backers are Saudi and Qatari, financed by Gulf petrodollars. There was a Youtube video of Sheikh Yusef Qurdawi, broadcast from Saudi Arabia. He says to the ISIS fighters, 'Guys, I won’t be able to sleep tonight unless you kill 300 Christians and 300 Alawites.””

Later that evening, Jaafari addressed a room packed with over 50 Syrian Americans and 25 anti-war activists, organized largely by the Syrian American Forum. In his remarks, he talked about the U.S. use of 'creative chaos.' “The objective is to get the Arab countries to deviate from their attention on the Israelis. This gives them time to kill the objective of the Palestinian state.”

Then he told a story that left jaws dropped throughout the room. Complaining about the degeneration of the UN as a body, he stated that Israel was nominated to be the vice chair of the Fourth Committee, and they won. “What is the Fourth Committee? The body that oversees the status of Palestine and the Golan Heights, among others. Israel will now chairing the UN meetings addressing the status of Palestine.”

Here is a video of the press conference:

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The Americans were in four different Syrian cities, but their experiences were largely the same. They witnessed an outpouring of sentiment by 11 million Syrians for an end to the foreign-backed invasion of their land, and national unity to reconstruct a society that is secular and prosperous. They expressed this mainly by a vote for President Bashar al Assad, who has led the country in defeating the extremist, Al Qaeda-linked armies.

The observers are united in returning home to work against the American government’s intervention in Syria, without which this war would have been over long ago.

The following is a statement by Joe Iosbaker at the press conference:

My name is Joe Iosbaker. I’m an activist with the Anti-War Committee-Chicago, and also I’m part of the leadership of the United National Antiwar Coalition.

The Syrian people are an inspiration. They have withstood a terrible war, brought to their country by my government and its allies.

I observed the elections in Homs, where the death toll has been in the thousands, and one week after our visit, a car bomb targeting civilians was exploded by foreign-backed right-wing rebels.

I spoke with a medical student who wants to be an ophthalmologist like her president, Bashar al Assad. She and her young friends were confident that the Syrian people would go forward and rebuild their country.

The U.S. government denounced the election before it was held, and the governments that are behind the war in Syria closed the Syrian embassies in their countries so Syrians abroad could not participate. The Western media was shocked by the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Beirut, Lebanon who lined up for three days to vote at the embassy there. These things showed me what these elections represent: a defeat for the U.S., NATO, the Zionists and the Gulf States, and a victory for the Syrians.

#NewYorkNY #AntiwarMovement #Elections #Syria #JoeIosbaker #UnitedNations #DrBasharJaafari #MiddleEast