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United Nations Security Council

PAIMUN 2015

United Nations Security Council

Topic: Complications in the Syrian Conflict Committee Director(s): Abdelaziz Bahnasy Committee Type: Specialized Committee

Letter from the Dais

Greetings, delegates, and welcome to Phillips Academy’s annual Model United Nations (PAIMUN) competition! This particular sect of the United Nations is called the Security Council.

My name is Abdelaziz Bahnasy (you may call me “Zizo”), and it is my pleasure to serve as the director of this committee. Hailing from North Plainfield, New Jersey, I am a Junior at Phillips Academy, where I pursue my passions for debate, social justice, and economics through various organizations like this one. I plan to chair this committee as my first experience on the “other side,” and I expect to witness encouraging and heated debate that allows us to move forward. But never fear! I was in your position just last year! I personally am linked quite tightly to the region at hand, though you should expect no bias on my part. My parents both emigrated seventeen years ago from Egypt to the United States, and they raised my three sisters and me with Egyptian culture, Islamic virtues (including knowledge of the Qur’an), and Egyptian Arabic, all while we attended an American public school. I have visited Egypt once in my life, in 2009, and I met all of my extended family prior to the revolution. I hope to visit again soon, but in the meantime, I am busy with school and commitments. I did have a chance to visit Turkey for one month this summer, and I traveled from İstanbul to İzmir to Hacılar to Cappadocia and back to İstanbul, so I witnessed the surface of a regional issue we hope to tackle in our committee. And, at the same time, I

Phillips Academy Interscholastic Model United Nations Conference 2015

witnessed a common peace in the country that proves the people in this problem want to find a solution. As such, I am delighted to be sharing this background with all of you who I am sure will bring an equal amount of passion and perspective to the table. As ever-increasing reports emerge of the Islamic State’s war on the status quo, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) must use this time not only to seek an acceptable resolution in terms of handling ISIS, but also to develop an assistance to the civilians of Syria, who currently face a humanitarian crisis. These two topics do in a sense overlap, and the purpose of this committee is to brighten the lives of human beings who suffer on a daily basis. You all as delegates have the unique opportunity of grappling with two of the most relevant and significant issues that this organization (as well as the rest of the world!) faces. I look forward to meeting you and working with you all on these two pressing topics in the near future!

Best wishes and until PAIMUN,

Abdelaziz Bahnasy ([email protected])


Committee

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) often times earns the title of the most powerful branch of the United Nations. Many people consider the UNSC to be the “police force” that aims to protect the world. However, in a sense, the UNSC aims to maintain international peace and security in accordance with the principles and the purposes the United Nations. Beginning in post-World-War-II 1946, the UNSC has sought to make the world a better place using its power. In regions of volatile conditions and international crime, the UNSC must use its power to step in and take action in an attempt to lessen oppression and violence against civilians. The UNSC performs its duty in both an executive as well as a judicial manner, in the sense that a group of delegates decides what to do in a very sensitive and dangerous situation and proceeds to activate those decisions. The UNSC must create order. The UNSC consists of 15 nations, five permanent and ten elected for a two-year period. The five permanent nations are the United States, Russia, China, France, and the United Kingdom. The current elected nations are Angola, Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Spain, and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Because Syria faces trouble from both the present regime as well as the militant Islamist group ISIS, the application of economic sanctions, another feature of the UNSC, likely will not fix the conflict in the country.

The UN in the past has come to a conclusion saying Syria needs humanitarian aid. The human beings living in the nation take priority in the UNSC’s responsibilities. As delegates, you must focus on bringing peace to a war-torn nation with a volatile past. Because the Syrian crisis has not yet reached a conclusion, the UNSC has the power to change the world.

Topic History: Crisis in Syria

After decades of political repression, the Syrian pot has boiled over. There is no defining moment that marks the point of no return. Rather, the events in Syria over the past four years have included a series of gradual yet chaotic shifts with no clear direction. With a lack of defined leadership, Syria’s future appears equally uncertain, if not bloodier. What started as an eruption of fury born from decades of tension, may drag into years of crippling civil war. While tumult and uncertainty characterize most of the nations embroiled in the Arab Spring, an all- consuming cesspool of violence most accurately describes the situation in Syria. The Syrian uprising carries such a stigma because the regime has been largely successful. The military has remained loyal, the regime has managed to keep protestors divided and unarmed,


and the nation is shrouded in a near total media blackout. Moreover, world powers like China and Russia continue to sustain the regime economically despite harsh Western sanctions. While scores are murdered daily, the international community treats the uprising like a pawn in a political proxy chess match; Syria demonstrates a collision of regional geopolitical and international economic interests. Unfortunately, change may only come at the barrel of a gun. Before one can envisage Syria’s future, one must first recognize the events that have led to the present situation.

History of Syria before Bashar al-Assad The persistent theme of political repression, in addition to national diversity, adds to the understanding of the recent uprising. For forty years, Syria has lived under an Assad regime. Hafez al-Assad, Bashar’s father, came to power in 1971 where he served as president for nearly three decades until his death in June of 2000. Hafez brought unprecedented stability to the Syrian presidency. Previously, frequent military and political coups had crippled Syria and had restricted legitimate development in the nation.

When al-Assad came to power, he ushered in not only political stability with his iron fist rule – backed largely with support from the Soviet Union – but also a thorough propaganda campaign. The word “Assad” in Arabic means “lion,” and during Hafez’ rule, this word was deemed so important that it was sacrilegious to describe an actual lion by using this term. Akin to future portrayals of his son, Hafez was depicted as the savior of Syria. Lauded for his public works projects and his relative religious tolerance, Assad’s fame was unprecedented for a post- independence Syrian president. While absurdly exaggerating propaganda dominated the media in Syria, a ruthless mind was behind the curtain. Thousands of dissidents faced the wrath of a president who was unafraid to use the full strength of his security force and extrajudicial means to eliminate opponents. The most infamous of these events was the Hama Massacre of 1982.

Comparison to 1982 Crackdown – 30th Anniversary of the Hama

Massacre The protests and unrest awakened by the Arab Spring certainly are not new in Syria. The massive bloodshed in Homs coincidentally marks the 30th anniversary of the Hama Massacre. In February of 1982, under orders of President Hafez Al- Assad government soldiers mercilessly leveled the city of Hama, killing an estimated 25,000 Syrians in its wake according to Amnesty International. This operation silenced the Sunni Muslim revolt against Hafez. The Hama Massacre has also been labeled "the single deadliest act by any Arab government against people in the modern Middle East.


Prior to the Massacre, two major groups were at odds, both socially and politically: the governing secular, socialist Ba’athists and the conservative, religiously motivated Muslim Brotherhood. The Muslim Brotherhood had adopted a series of guerilla-like strategies in order to combat the Alawite regime. Spreading across cities around the country, these periodic clashes plagued Syria for several years before the catastrophic moment in 1982. Finally in February of this year, Hafez al-Assad decided that he would have no more of the Muslim Brotherhood’s dissident ways. By targeting a Muslim Brotherhood stronghold in Hama, Assad leveled the city utterly quashed the Muslim Brotherhood and in so doing brought a catastrophic loss of life to the country. It is difficult to convey the sheer magnitude of the obliteration that Hafez al-Assad brought upon his own citizens in the city of Hama.

In 1982, Assad was largely successful in his operation. Though the price was great – including over 1,000 deaths from Syrian security forces alone – Assad was able to effectively cripple the Muslim Brotherhood. Following this Massacre, Hafez reaffirmed his dedication to iron fist, political repression policies. Thirty years later, echoes of Hama are hauntingly in the air. While that incident of brutality may have silenced a revolution, such success was not entirely obtainable for the Syrian government in 2013, even given the recent Russian and Chinese actions due to the dispersed nature of the uprising. In large part, Assad’s success in 1982 was based on the concentrated nature of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The dynamics and face of the revolution in 2013 were far different than they were in 1982. The more modern uprising was multifaceted in terms of protestors and, perhaps more important to the vitality of the revolution, in terms of geography. The uprising was incredibly dispersed across the country, thereby making it rather challenging for a single scorched earth operation to silence the uprising. Even if Homs were to go the same way as Hama, it is doubtful that the destruction of that single city alone could stop the movement.

UN Double Veto

Within twelve hours of the highpoint of violence in Homs, the Security Council came to a vote on a resolution aimed at ending violence in Syria. While thirteen votes were in favor of the solution, two vetoes from Russia and China effectively paralyzed the international community. Meanwhile, government tank shells screamed into buildings, snipers shot at will and mortars rained down onto rooftops in Homs.

The vetoes from the Russian and Chinese delegations were not unexpected. In October of 2013, Russia and China vetoed a Security Council resolution that could have significantly curbed violence in Syria.


In the words of British UN representative Lyall Grant, “Those who blocked the council action must ask themselves how many more deaths they will be prepared to tolerate.”

Proposed UN Resolution of February 4, 2012

Building on the comprehensive report presented by the Arab League – the same body that has suspended Syria’s membership – the United Nations Security Council presented a resolution in early February 2012. The following are a few highlights from the proposed resolution in the Security Council that was shot down by the Russian and Chinese double

1. Condemns the continued widespread and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities

2. Demands that the Syrian government immediately put an end to all human rights violations

7. Fully supports in this regard the League of Arab States' 22 January 2012 decision to facilitate a Syrian- led political transition to a democratic, plural political system, in which citizens are equal regardless of their affiliations or ethnicities or beliefs, including through commencing a serious political dialogue between the Syrian government and the whole spectrum of the Syrian opposition under the League of Arab States' auspices, in accordance with the timetable set out by the League of Arab States;

12. Calls upon the Syrian authorities to allow safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance in order to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to persons in need of assistance.

Situation in Homs as a Flashpoint

On February 4, 2012 after two days of indiscriminate violence, over 300 lay dead in the Syrian city of Homs. “At least 337 people were killed in the Homs assault,” a Syrian National Council spokesman said, “and of those identified, 72were children and 45 were women.”

Violence is certainly nota new phenomenon in Homs. Dubbed “the Capital of the Revolution,” Homs has seen some of the largest demonstrations from over the past twelve months, and so too has it witnessed arguably the most concentrated violence.


Homs has played a central role since the start of the Syrian uprising. In a revolution that spans a great diversity of peoples and regions, Homs is as close to a vignette of the revolt as one may find. Homs has been under siege by security forces and the Syrian army since May of 2011, and the protests and demonstrations began as early as April. The Assad regime has justified their military presence in the city by claiming that such actions are for the protection of the country against the terrorist activities of Western-inspired radicals. Since the beginning of the siege by the regime, a gradual series of escalation has been carried out by the regime. Beginning with a blockade of humanitarian aid and basic human necessities, the siege has become a military operation. Thug squads replaced increased security forces. Snipers and on the rooftops came shortly there after. Finally, in late January and early February of 2012, government tanks rolled into the streets and mortars indiscriminately pounded civilian rooftops.

Homs also served as ground zero for the Free Syrian Army, Syria’s armed opposition group. Though the United Nations brokered a peace agreement in April of 2012, full-scale clashes continue to emerge throughout the city.

Origins & Existence

It is essential for one to recognize that situation in Syria has morphed and metastasized in unfathomable ways since the onset of tension in March of 2011. Back four years ago, a group of school-aged boys audaciously graffitied the slogan that has come to define a generation, a region and a movement: “The people want the fall of the regime.”

When the government disproportionately responded with arresting and torturing the school boys of the southern Syrian city of Dara’a, the people of this city responded in a fury against the egregious actions of their government.

However, this moment, which has been identified as the trigger point of the Arab Spring in Syria, most certainly cannot be teleologically linked to the current debilitating crisis in the country. Rather, back in March of 2011, Syrians demanded accountability from their government. Arguably for the first time in their nations history, Syrians demanded to be seen as citizens and not solely as servants. Syrians demanded respect of human rights, an end to the systemic corruption that had overtaken the economy and the private sector, a respect for basic freedoms.

The Rise of the Islamic State

One group manages to appear frequently in today’s media: the Islamic State. The world as well as the UNSC recognizes ISIS as a terroristic, extreme Islamist


group. The group began in 1999 with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as its leader but eventually joined Al-Qaeda by 2004 or so. ISIS since has made a name for itself, officially separating from Al-Qaeda in 2014. Since its rise to prominence, ISIS has declared its mission as a caliphate, an Islamic empire of sorts, run by the caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Because a number of Syrian civilians have joined ISIS’s caliphate, the extremist group has managed to avoid massacring the population. At the same time, the group has destroyed land intended for farming, sites intended for remembrance, and has caused battles that have killed innocent civilians repeatedly. ISIS with its bringing of war has caused many Syrian civilians to flee he country as refugees.

The Islamic State has taken control of the Raqqa province as well as of portions of the Aleppo province. The group has taken control of Palmyra, one of the world’s pre-Islamic world heritage sites, and it has triggered border battles with the Kurdish people living to the north near Turkey. Many people have died.

The United Nations has condemned the actions of ISIS and has placed sanctions upon anybody associated with the extremist group.

Current Situation

The situation in Syria has boiled to a point of extreme turmoil and war. The political scape has changed significantly in the past several years and even months. The Assad regime exists powerfully, but a new group, the Islamic State, has risen to power as civilians have encountered pain and struggle. Many Syrian refugees, as portrayed in the media, have fled to Europe and have attracted attention and support from millions of people across the world. Clearly these human beings have experienced enough tragedy and pain to leave their homes and any sense of familiarity.

The Syrian crisis, beginning initially as a call for human rights, has cascaded into an all-consuming national civil war and regional terror and international proxy war. With intransigence abound, it seems that neither ISIS nor the flailing regime have shown or have

progressed to show any signs of sway. As the UNSC, it is your duty to try to ensure peace can build a stronghold in the region, and it is your duty to protect human life with the elimination of chaos and turmoil.


Questions to Consider

1. How does the United Nations go about handling a terrorist group when the nation’s regime itself has not offered to budge in favor of the interests of the rest of the world?

2. Is it possible to stop the progress Islamic State before it conquers Syria?

3. How does the UNSC manage civilians who have sided with ISIS? Are sanctions the proper response to change the minds of human beings who have committed no crime? Does the UNSC have the right to target religious beliefs?

4. What does the UNSC do about migrants who have traveled to Syria to join ISIS after being lured into the chaos?

5. Should the United Nations encourage Syrian emigration by innocent civilians to other countries?

6. What is the next step the world can take to try to lighten this situation without causing any harm?

Resources for Further Research

United Nations Documents about Syria

http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-documents/syria/

Websites to Consider

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-15625642

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_2139

http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-un-vetoes-syria-ukraine-undermining-united-nations-

security-council-us-warns-2110080


http://www.un.org/en/sc/members/


http://thepolitic.org/youthful-idealism-in-syri/

http://www.un.org/en/sc/about/functions.shtml


http://www.npr.org/2015/09/28/444236874/support-for-syrian-regime-critical-in-fight-against-isis-putin-says-at-u-n
