"We must do everything in our power to end this massacre," said the Chancellor in a government statement, condemning the Assad regime’s attacks on Eastern Ghouta. The allies of the regime also bear a responsibility, she said.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel has found clear words to condemn the Assad regime’s attacks on the Syrian district of Eastern Ghouta.
"What we are seeing at the moment, the appalling events in Syria, the fight of a regime not against terrorists but against its own people, the killing of children, the destruction of hospitals – all this is a massacre that must be condemned," said Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday in a government statement in the German Bundestag on the informal meeting of the European Council.
Everything must be done to end the "massacre" said Angela Merkel. This demand also applies to the allies of the Assad regime, "especially Iran and Russia ".
Federal government spokesperson Steffen Seibert condemned the attacks on Wednesday. The Assad regime’s latest military offensive in Eastern Ghouta is not a fight against terrorists, said government spokesperson Steffen Seibert. "It is a military campaign against Syria’s own civilians." There have been hundreds of deaths in only two days, including many women and children – and hundreds more injured.
Once again civilian infrastructure, especially hospitals and medical facilities have been specifically targeted and destroyed. Steffen Seibert also commented on Unicef’s response. "The United Nations Children’s Fund, Unicef, has expressed its horror with an empty tweet – They are at a loss for words in the face of this!"
The situation of the 400,000 or so people in this area just outside Damascus, which has been besieged for years, is disastrous, declared the government spokesperson. The regime is systematically withholding food, drugs and medical equipment from the suffering people of the area, in an effort to force the rebels who control the area to surrender – or be destroyed.
Steffen Seibert declared, "In spite of all the efforts of the United Nations, the regime is continuing its military strategy with brutality and rejecting any attempt to find a political solution. We must ask, he said, where are Russia and Iran, who declared in Astana that they would guarantee the ceasefire, in Eastern Ghouta as elsewhere."
He continued, "Without the support of these two allies, the Assad regime would not have the military clout it has today. And there can be no doubt that the regime would have had to show a greater readiness to negotiate within the scope of the UN-brokered process, had it not had this support."
Steffen Seibert thus stressed, "We call on the Assad regime to end the massacre in Eastern Ghouta without delay, to let humanitarian supplies into the area and permit medical evacuations. We also call on the backers of the Assad regime to use their significant influence to this end."