Thank you, Chair.
As-salaam alaikum.
Saying thank you doesn't fully encapsulate the gratitude we need to express to you for the work you are doing. You're doing God's work in a place where it seems the gates of hell have opened up. These are the most horrific human atrocities of the 21st century, and may God protect you in your work.
Having said that, we have a responsibility as well, and we can't be bystanders. Through your testimony bearing witness, and through your eyes, you have shown us the hell of Syria. Perhaps a starting point for all of us is to be clear, so we aren't just bystanders. We need to call things clearly by what they are, and we need to be clear in stating that what the regime and its Russian enablers—the generals and diplomats—are involved in is systemic, sequential, knowingly and methodically planned and meticulously executed war crimes, including the use of prohibited weapons, the use of prohibited tactics, the targeting of civilians. There have been nine UN-documented cases of intentional mass killings.
As diplomats at the UN discussed what was happening, and as Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov talked of peace, incendiary bombs—white phosphorus bombs—were being loaded on planes to be dropped on places like Raqqa and bunker-buster bombs were being loaded onto Russian planes to be dropped on Aleppo, targeting civilians—the children you described hiding in basements.
I have no questions for you. My question is for all of us: what are we going to do about it?
Thank you.