Al-Jaafari: UN Security Council Should Shoulder Responsibility
NEW YORK- (ST)- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar Al-Jaafari has urged the UN Security Council to shoulder its responsibility towards implementing its resolutions regarding the continuity of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan and regarding the Palestinian refugees issue.
Al-Jaafari, in Syria’s statement on the Middle East situation during a UNSC session last night, called upon the Council to deal seriously with the continuation of the 45-year old Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan, and implement the unanimously adopted international resolution No. (497) for 1981 which considered Israel’s decision to annex the occupied Golan as null and void and as having no legal validity. He also urged the Council to implement other related resolutions.
“The decades long UNSC refrain from claiming responsibility in this connection confirms that some of the Council’s members adopt selective policies regarding the implementation of the resolutions, particularly when the issue is connected with Israel,” al-Jaafari said, reiterating that representatives of the UN General Secretariat are more concerned than others in providing the Council with honestly updated information about the Israeli violations in the occupied Golan.
Al-Jaafari added “Syria regularly informs the General Secretariat with such violations the “latest of which were the increasing kidnapping crimes committed by Israeli occupation authorities against Syrian citizens within the Syria side of the ceasefire line, and Israel’s wide-range military drills on the occupied Golan lands in a war-like measyre against Syria.”
Al-Jaafari: Those who allege cautiousness about Syrian people’s rights must not ignore the right of the Syrian people to restore their occupied land
Al-Jaafari asserted that those who allege, during the current crisis in Syria, that they care about the rights of the Syrian people, must not ignore this people’s right to restore their occupied lands. They must not also ignore the suffering of the Syrians under occupation in Golan.
“Those who claim care about the rights of the Syrian people, should not keep silent over Israel’s incessant settlement building process in the occupied Golan and the building of a racist segregation wall in eastern Majdal Shams town. They shouldn’t keep silent over Israel’s refusal to hand over the mines map to concerned international organizations,” al-Jaafari said, pointing out that the mines implanted by the Israeli occupation in Golan have claimed the lives of 726 Syrian citizens including 227 children, most recent cases of which took place early this month.
The Syrian UN Envoy pointed out that the Palestinian people have been suffering for more than six decades because of the Israeli occupation inhuman practices, and they are still waiting to be given their slightest rights represented in establishing an independent sovereign state over their own lands.
He remind the UNSC of the decades long ordeal of more than five million Palestinian refugees displaced from their homeland and whose lands and houses were confiscated. He also referred to the occupation authorities’ settlement building campaigns and to the Israeli continued violations of human rights, International Law, and all international legal references as well as continued violations of moral and humanitarian standards in the occupied Arab territories.
Israel still defies the international legitimacy by its intransigence and aggressive policies .
Al-Jaafari said that Israel still defies international legitimacy by its intransigence and aggressive policies, adding that it impedes any chance of achieving peace in the region, as it benefits from the direct protection provided by certain influential states in the Security Council and outside it too.
“In spite of all that, certain sides which claim being the International community still raise questions in an attempt to grope its way in the Arab-Israeli conflict in a manner similar to the attempts made in the Middle Ages to determine the sex of the angels. “, Al-Jaafari noted.
He questioned : How many decades must pass on the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories so that some would acknowledge the need take serious measures to end this occupation , and how many innocent victims among the Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese must fall to convince others that there is a real tragedy that should end. How many settlements in the occupied Arab territories should be established and how many apartheid walls should be built in the occupied territories. To what extent the sanctity of Islamic and Christian holy sites must be violated to awaken the conscience of these same countries as to stop the Israeli perpetrated crime.
Syria’s representative to the UN referred to the reports filed by dozens of inquiries of the fact-finding missions to the Security Council and the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council and the United Nations specialized agencies throughout decades and said, “Are these reports not sufficient to diagnose the size of the Israeli aggression and terrorism against the countries and peoples of the region “.
Ambassador Al-Jaafari pointed out that there were more than a one thousand resolution adopted by the United Nations in its various organs demanding an end to the Israeli occupation and condemn Israel ‘s gross violations and systematic and aggressive practices, asserting that this should be enough to embarrass those states and make them abandon their unlimited military, economic and political support to Israel.
Al-Jaafari added that these raised questions are addressed to the countries supporting Israel, which always claim keenness to implement the provisions of international law , to fight terrorism , maintain the credibility of the United Nations, and ensure respect for human rights .
He expressed astonishment that the one who claims commitment to maintain the region ‘s stability and security, has turned a blind eye to Israel’s continued threats to regional and international peace and security through its continuous threats of war drums against the countries of the region and its frenzied quest to drag even its allies into this war. He wondered how can these countries remain silent about Israel’s acquisition of nuclear weapons while, it is still outside the Nuclear non- proliferation treaty, pointing that Israel still refuses to confirm its participation in the International Conference, due to take place after one month as to clean the Middle East from all of mass destruction weapons, recalling Syria ‘s continuous commitment to establish such a region.
He added that this Syrian stand was translated in Launching her initiative by the end of 2003 through its membership in the UN Security Council to rid the region of all weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons. He explained that the same countries which prevented the success of the Syrian initiative, are speaking now hypocritically about the threat of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Al-Jaafari cited the feverish attempts made by some delegations in support of the continued Israeli occupation of the Arab territories, asserting that these attempts also provide to insert other topics of discussion as to keep the Council’s deliberations on this item apart from the main objective for which the council was established , namely ending the Israeli occupation of the occupied Arab territories , based on UN Security Council resolutions Nos. 242, 338 and 497.
Al-Jaafari added that Syria has much to refute all these allegations reported by the delegations of the countries which spared no efforts to escalate the crisis in Syria and foil any peaceful solution for this crisis, through violation of the International law and the UN Charter , and interference in the internal affairs of Syria and in an attempt to take the right of the Syrian people to determine their own future , choose their political system and to abort all bids to convene a national comprehensive dialogue.
Flagrant foreign interference in Syrian affairs obstruct efforts for national reconciliation
Ambassador Al- Jaafari stressed that flagrant foreign intervention in Syria’s affairs is obstructing efforts for achieving national reconciliation and national comprehensive dialogue, reiterating that the support provided by these countries to undermine Syria ‘s sovereignty by encouraging terrorism and providing all forms of logistical , financial and political support to the terrorist armed groups in Syria constitute another flagrant intervention in the Syrian affairs.
The Syrian permanent representative to the UN criticized that way the Security Council or some of its members react differently to terrorism phenomenon in Syria, and in Mali, for example, though the terrorism in Mali is the same as the one that is targeting Syria across the borders of neighboring countries.
H. Mustafa/ T. Fateh