Mr. Farouq Al Habib:

What my friend Qassem described in the video is an example of the life of terror we live because of the indiscriminate aerial bombardment in Syria using barrel bombs, which are the main killer of civilians in Syria. Many of the committee members have probably heard about this horrific weapon, which is specifically designed to impose mass punishment on civilian communities out of the regime's control. These crude bombs, which are simply explosive-filled fuel barrels that eject nails, scrap metal and other random cheap but deadly shrapnel, take dozens of innocent lives every day. These primitive, cheap and indiscriminate weapons have become a source of constant panic among Syrian civilians, especially when the regime fills them with chlorine gas.

While responding to these attacks, the search and rescue teams face twice the danger because as Qassem explained in the video, the Syrian Air Force has adopted a technique in carrying out its attacks, referred to as the "double tap", where the aircraft returns again to bomb the same location minutes later to kill rescue workers and first responders.

Now the Russians are using the same illegal tactics to kill first responders, in contravention of international humanitarian law. The White Helmets, as a humanitarian organisation, demand that all parties to the conflict stop targeting civilians, although when we say "all parties to the conflict," we do not imply that the violations are committed equally by all of them. The world knows who started the killing and who owns the planes, rockets, chemical weapons and security apparatus that have been responsible for tens of thousands of assassinations, detentions and cases of torture.

All the world heard about the terrorist actions of ISIS against the Syrian people; however, some people forgot about the mass killing perpetrated by Assad’s dictatorial government. While ISIS is theatrically barbaric, it has killed only a few thousand Syrian civilians. By contrast, of the 250,000 to 300,000 people estimated to have been killed in the war, approximately 180,000 were civilians killed by the regime. Let me say that again: the regime has murdered more than 180,000 civilians, mostly through indiscriminate aerial bombardment.

In the past two years, 109 White Helmet volunteers were killed in the line of duty; 105 of them were killed by the Assad regime and its allies, mostly due to the double-tap tactic that is deliberately used and that aims to hit the largest number of civilians and volunteers who gather to rescue and provide help after an attack. Other than that, many health facilities, civil defence centres, ambulances and fire engines are being deliberately targeted and partly or entirely destroyed. Just yesterday, Abdulrazzak Aboud, a colleague and rescue worker, was killed by what is believed to be a double-tap Russian attack on Sarmin village in Idleb.

Ladies and gentlemen, when the Syrian people started the revolution for freedom and dignity, they believed all the free world would support them based on our joint values and dreams of peace and justice. This is what we expect from you and from all of our friends: to advocate for the legitimate rights of the Syrian people, by recognising our right to live under a civilised and democratic regime, with no dictatorship and no extremism; to put pressure on the UN Security Council to ensure the protection of civilians and create safe zones for them to enable the Syrian people to build an alternative; and to provide humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable people in Syria, who are in a living hell in the areas out of the control of the regime - the regime which controls only 14% of the Syrian territories and receives most of the UN aid.