Al-Dahhak: Syria rejects harming UNRWA and the occupation’s attempts to liquidate the Palestinian cause

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Qusai Al-Dahhak, affirmed Syria’s absolute rejection of attempts aimed at undermining the role and mandate of UNRWA in service of the Israeli occupation’s agenda aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue, including the right of return. Syria once again called on the donor countries that suspended their funding to the agency to reverse their decision and continue providing support for the Palestinian people in their homeland and in the host countries, including Syria.

Al-Dahhak explained before a briefing session of the UN Security Council on the work of UNRWA that the United Nations General Assembly established UNRWA 75 years ago in order to provide care and support to the Palestinian refugees who were forced by brutal Israeli attacks and massacres, and acts of terrorism committed by the Haganah, Stern and other gangs, to forcibly abandon their homes and homeland, and to search for a safe haven in other parts of the Palestinian territories or in neighboring sisterly Arab countries, including Syria.

Al-Dahhak added: “Since that time, the Israeli occupation authorities have continued their aggressive policies towards the countries and peoples of the region, committing the most heinous crimes and massacres, the latest of which is the crime of genocide that has been ongoing for more than six months against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, and against all humanitarian and medical teams who come to their aid of the Palestinian people in addition to journalists who document the crimes of the Israeli occupation and the suffering of the Palestinians; a suffering that is exacerbated by attempts to liquidate UNRWA at the hands of “Israel” and its allies, who claim that the Israeli Nazi entity is the only democracy in the Middle East.

Al-Dahhak continued: “The United Nations has adopted hundreds of resolutions related to the Arab-Israeli conflict, but those resolutions did not find their way into implementation due to the blatant bias and unlimited support provided by the successive American administrations and the colonial Western countries to the occupying entity, which was evident once again in the American administration’s prevention of the Security Council of adopting a clear resolution calling for an immediate and permanent cessation of Israeli aggression, and rushing immediately after the Council’s adoption of Resolution 2728 to declare that this Resolution is, and I quote: “non-binding and does not entail any new obligations for the parties,” in a blatant expression of selectivity and double standards in dealing with United Nations resolutions, and to provide more it is time for Israel to continue its extermination of the Palestinian people, persist in its aggressive actions, and continue its attempts to escalate the situation in the region through its repeated attacks on civilian and diplomatic facilities in the Syrian Arab Republic and other Arab countries.”

Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations said: “My delegation stresses the vital and indispensable role of UNRWA in helping the Palestinian people, and condemns Israel’s targeting and deliberate and systematic killing of more than 224 employees of UNRWA and other United Nations agencies, as well as other humanitarian personnel who lost their lives as a result of the barbaric Israeli aggression on Gaza. My delegation also extends its condolences to the Commissioner-General of UNRWA and to the families of the victim UNRWA personnel, wishing a speedy recovery for the injured.

Al-Dahhak concluded by saying: “Syria absolutely rejects attempts to undermine the role and mandate of UNRWA in the service of the Israeli occupation’s agenda aimed at liquidating the Palestinian issue, including the right of return. Syria furthermore urges the donor countries that suspended their funding to the agency to reverse their decision and resume their funding to UNRWA as quickly as possible so as to ensure providing sufficient, sustainable and predictable resources, and continuing to provide support to the Palestinian people in their homeland and in host countries, including Syria, which hosts hundreds of thousands of Palestinian brothers.”