Al-Jaafari: Occupied Golan was and will remain Syrian territory we struggle to restore completely
New York (ST): Syria’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, reiterated that the occupied Golan was and will remain Syrian territory and we will continue our struggle to restore it completely until the borderlines of June 4th 1967, affirming that this issue is not subject to negotiation, blackmail or compromise.
In a statement to the Security Council during its session about the situation in the Middle East, al-Jaafari said that Syria has always updated the Security Council and the General Secretariat of the United Nations about the violations and aggressive practices of the Israeli occupation in the occupied Syrian Golan including forcing our citizens in the Golan to register their real estate properties at the occupation authorities’ sections and stealing areas of their lands to set up wind turbines there, Judaizing the Golan and bringing thousands of extremist settlers to it, noting that these grave developments were not mentioned in any of the UN Middle East envoy Nicolay Mladenov’s reports which were submitted to the UNSC previously.
The Syrian diplomat voiced Syria’s solid opposition to the approach adopted by Mladenov, in his periodic briefings and his deliberate negligence of the situation in the occupied Syrian Golan and the developments there in light of the continued aggressive and criminal practices of the Israeli occupation authorities and the decisions recently issued by the US administration which represent a blatant violation of international law and the regulations of theUN Charter and the UNSC resolutions and the General Assembly on the Syrian Golan and other occupied Arab lands, particularly Resolution No. 497 for 1981 which considered the Israeli occupation’s decision to impose its jurisdiction on the occupied Golan as null and void.
Al-Jaafari wondered how long the Security Council would remain silent towards the Israeli occupation’s continued gross violations of human rights and humanitarian, international law in the occupied Syrian Golan since 1967, including settlement, discrimination, arbitrary detention, torture and the plundering the Golan natural resources. “Moreover, the Israeli occupation authorities offered unlimited support to the terrorist groups operating in Syria.” Al-Jaafari added.
He went on to say that the continued threat resulting from the Israeli occupation of Arab territories to security and stability in the Middle East and the world indicates the failure of the UNSC to preserve international peace and security and deal with the reasons of tensions in our region pointing out that had the Israeli occupation not have had support from some Western governments, it would not have defied the international community and the UN resolutions.
The Syrian diplomat clarified that the US record of using the veto against draft resolutions that aimed to halt the Israeli occupation criminal practices can clearly show the double-standard policy adopted by consecutive US administrations showing blind bias towards the occupation.
He pointed out that the stability of the Middle East region and the UN credibility require adopting measures that guarantee the implementation of UN resolutions related to ending the Israeli occupation of the occupied Arab lands, including the Syrian Golan and withdrawing from it until June 4th 1967 borderlines according to the UN relevant resolutions, chiefly Resolutions 242, 338, 497 and 2334.
Al-Jaafari affirmed that those who think that the difficult circumstances Syria is passing through would change the reality that Golan was and still is Syrian territory that we struggle to restore completely, are mistaken
He stressed Syria’s full support for the right of the Palestinian people to self- determination , the establishment of their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and guaranteeing the return of the Palestinian refugees to the indigenous homeland according to UN resolution No. 194 for 1948.
K.Q.