NPR : News

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Says His Is A 'Peaceful Nation'

By: Eyder Peralta
September 3, 2013
comments

In a contentious interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the Syrian ambassador to the U.N. defended his country, saying claims that Syria used chemical weapons against its own people were "false and unfounded."

"You can repeat the same mistakes that the previous American administrations did at many times, during [the] Vietnam War or during the Cuban Crisis or the Iraqi War with Colin Powell in the Security Council," Bashar Ja'afari said on Tuesday.

He added: "We haven't declared war to the United States or to any of our neighbors," Ja'afari said. "We are not war mongers. We are not war advocates. We are a peaceful nation, a small nation, and we don't pretend to be equally strong enough to confront the United States military."

Amanpour pressed Ja'afari, saying there is a preponderance of evidence that points at the regime as the source of a chemical weapons attack.

Ja'afari held his ground.

"All what we are saying is that yes, we do have a domestic crisis," he said. "Yes, wrongdoings happened in the past. Yes, injustices took place in Syria in the past. We need to correct this, and we believe in what Obama said in the elections. 'Change: Yes we can.'"

Copyright 2013 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Arts & Culture

NPR

George R.R. Martin, Author And ... Movie-Theater Guy?

The author of the wildly successful Game of Thrones books has been spending his days working on reopening an old movie theater in Santa Fe — much to the displeasure of fans who think he should be writing the next book.

Food

NPR

Sandwich Monday: The Limited Edition Candy Corn Oreo

For this week's Sandwich Monday, we try a new take on the classic sandwich cookie: the Limited Edition Candy Corn Oreo.

Politics

NPR

Shutdown Diary, Day 7: The Blame Game

New polling shows that both parties are taking a hit over the shutdown, but Republicans are bearing the brunt of the blame from the American public.

Technology

NPR

Funding For Software To Cloak Web Activity Provokes Concern

A service called Tor makes it possible to communicate and surf the web anonymously. It sounds like a plot by privacy-minded rebels, but in fact the service receives most of its funding from the government and was started by the Pentagon. Despite recent revelations of government email snooping, the U.S. government supports anonymous communication so foreign dissidents can work undetected, and so government agents can pursue bad guys without giving away their identities. But now the service faces new accusations that it might be serving NSA surveillance efforts.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.