GLIMUN
DISEC
SYRIA
TROY HIGH SCHOOL
According to the UN, in 2006 about 25% of 4 billion dollars spent, 25% was spent on the Illicit arms trade problem. Illicit arms trade is a problem the UN has been trying to prevent for many years now. This problem is becoming out of hand in many countries in the Middle East. Illicit arms trade is the illegal way to trade weapons and armed forces between groups of people and countries. In Syria this is an increasingly alert issue. About 60%-90% of conflicted deaths in wars in the Syrian area have been caused by Syrian people, rebel groups. The government has been losing more and more power over their own citizens and are not able to take control of this problem. The Syrian rebel groups are gaining much more access to these weapons via this trade. If these rebel organizations are to capture more access to these illicit arms trade acts, then government power will become lower than what it is now but also put citizens at risk. Head officials of the Syrian country have been receiving weapons legally from international allies such as Russia and Iran. At the moment the Syrian government does have more control over these rebel groups but as time has been passing by the power gap between both groups have been shrinking. Qatar has been a prime suspect of helping these rebels attain these weapons illegally and creating a black market like system. Also the country of Saudi Arabia has been identified in helping to fund these organizations to take power from the Syrian government. The northern country of Libya has been providing the Syrian rebels since 2011 with heavy weapons, light weapons, explosives, ammo, and other material as well. The United States have has many ideas of ways to help these rebels in Syria but have taken no action as of now. Most of these rebel groups in Syria have been linked with/to ideas from terrorist groups such as, ISIS and Al Qaeda. Syria looks forward to being able to work with allied countries such as Russia and other middle eastern countries who are facing the same issue. This issue is not having the attention it deserves when it comes to finding a proper solution, Syria would look favorably to solving this problem as quickly as possible. With ending Illicit arm trade problems Syria would then be able to re obtain all government power, safety of citizen lives, and even eliminate terrorist groups that disturb the world as well as the country of Syria.
- Brandon Chabay
