Damascus:Syria’s Foreign and Expatriates Ministry forwarded separate letters to the world body’s Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council on Monday, the official SANA news agency reported.

The ministry pointed to terrorist bombing by Daesh that targeted Damascus suburbs and a residential neighborhood in Homs last Sunday, respectively killing 83 and 46 civilians and injuring hundreds.

The ministry said that the Security Council’s continuing silence and its failure to condemn terrorist acts encourages terrorists and their supporters and funders to continue committing terrorist acts, SANA reported.

“It encourages Daesh and its sponsors – particularly the Turkish and Saudi regimes – to continue committing massacres against the Syrian people,” the news agency said.

The silence “also encourages terrorist groups outside Syria that are carrying out attacks in other states in the region and the world,” it added.

The Syrian government “demands that the Security Council and the UN secretary general condemn these terrorist crimes immediately and sternly.”

Syria further called on the Security Council to take “immediate deterrent and punitive measures against the states that support and  fund terrorism, particularly Saudi Arabia and Turkey.”

Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have been offering safe passage as well as financial and ideological support to militants fighting the Syrian government and people.

According to a new report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, the Syrian conflict has claimed the lives of over 470,000 people, injured 1.9 million others, and displaced nearly half of the country’s pre-war population of about 23 million within or beyond its borders.

On Monday, the United States and Russia said a truce has been planned to take effect in the battle-scarred country on February 27.

“All warring sides in Syria must confirm, to us or to our US partners, their commitment to the ceasefire before noon on February 26,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

The conditions of the ceasefire – which does not apply to the fight against Daesh and al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front – were also released via a US State Department statement.

Syria’s main opposition group, the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee (HNC), said it agreed “to respond positively to international efforts to reach a truce deal.”

But its “commitment to the truce is conditional,” the group said, as it held a meeting in the Saudi capital to discuss the plan.
Following the ceasefire announcement, President Assad called for parliamentary elections to be held on April 13.

The announcement was made via an official statement released by Syria’s presidential office.