Syria accuses Israel at UN of committing ‘appalling’ violations in occupied Syrian Golan

Damascus has backed Russia, China, Iran and Cuba

Sep. 26 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, has accused Israel, in the 77th session of the UN General Assembly, of committing the “most atrocious” violations in the Syrian Golan Heights occupied by Israeli forces and has assured that Damascus maintains their right to recover the territory on the basis of the line demarcated in June 1967.

“Israel carries out the most heinous violations in the occupied Syrian Golan, including settlement expansion, demographic change and theft of natural resources, not to mention supporting terrorist organizations and repeated attacks on Syrian territories,” has explained.

In this sense, he explained that Israel “threatens international peace and security” and has made it clear that the occupied Syrian Golan “is in the heart of every citizen”, for which Syria maintains its “firm” and “indefeasible” right — without any negotiation — to recover it up to the line demarcated on June 4, 1967.

In addition, he explained that “any illegal military presence in Syrian territory violates International Law”, as well as the Charter of the United Nations. Therefore, this situation, he has defended, “must end immediately”, as reported by the Syrian state news agency, SANA.

In this sense, it has also supported the Palestinian people in their attempt “to liberate their occupied lands” and establish an independent and sovereign State, with Jerusalem as its capital. “Syria supports Palestine’s long-awaited decision to gain full membership in the United Nations,” she added.

With regard to Israel, he specified that the silence of Western countries in the face of Israeli practices — massacres, military aggression on Palestinian land and settlement policies — makes these countries “accomplices” that position themselves as protectors of International Law. .

“Israel has added a new chapter to this dark history, represented by its support for terrorist organizations, led by the Al Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated Al Nusra Front, and its systematic and deliberate launching of repeated attacks against Syrian territory, including civil ports and airports”, he explained.

INTERNAL POLITICAL PROCESS

Apart from Israel, he has emphasized that the local elections recently held in the country reflect “the expansion of democratic popular participation, the strengthening of decentralization and the deepening of local management in each town, city, region and province” .

The elections were held on Sunday, September 18, in the framework of the war unleashed in 2011 and in the absence of opposition candidates in the face of the total control exercised by the president, Bashar al Assad, who recently won a new mandate in a vote in which opposition was excluded.

Al Assad approved in August a decree to fix the date of the elections. Syria has a total of fourteen provinces, although the authorities do not have under their control parts of Idlib, Raqqa, Hasaka and Aleppo –in the hands of rebel groups– and of Deir Ezzor, Raqqa and Hasaka and Aleppo, which are in hands of the Kurdish forces.

The country held presidential elections in May 2021 in which Al Assad won re-election with more than 95 percent of the vote, after beating two little-known candidates after the veto process left out opponents, the majority of which are in exile.

In this context, Mekdad has defended that another step that the country has taken for national reconciliation is the general amnesty decreed for “terrorist crimes” committed by Syrian citizens except for those responsible for murder.

Thus, he explained that this rule has “an exceptional importance in its legal, social and political nature.” It must be remembered that Al Assad promulgated a general amnesty for all soldiers who have deserted from the ranks of the Army in the context of the conflict unleashed in the country in 2011 as a result of the violent repression of a series of pro-democracy demonstrations.

Syria “has renewed its support for the meetings held in the Astana format, and has also welcomed the results of the Tehran summit held on July 19,” he exemplified before the UN General Assembly.

He has also argued that the Syrian state “is making enormous efforts to improve the humanitarian situation, rebuild what was destroyed by terrorism and facilitate the return of refugees.”

SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA, CHINA, IRAN AND CUBA

On the other hand, he explained that Syria supports Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, as well as Moscow’s right to “defend itself and protect its national security in response to aggressive Western policies.”

Mekdad has also dedicated a few words to Iran, assuring that the United States unilaterally and illegally withdrew” from the nuclear agreement. In this sense, he has urged Washington and its Western allies to comply with “legitimate Iranian demands”.

In the same way, Syria has expressed its support for China in the face of “external interference attempts” in Taiwan, Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese region of Xinjiang in the framework of an “unprecedented escalation and policy of provocation” practiced by USA.

Finally, he has called on the international community to lift “coercive” and “unilateral” sanctions against countries such as Russia and Belarus, as a result of the war in Ukraine, Venezuela, North Korea, Nicaragua, Zimbabwe and Eritrea.

Likewise, he has asked the Biden Administration to stop “military movements and exercises” on the Korean peninsula, while demanding that Washington also lift sanctions against Cuba, which is subject to an economic blockade imposed by the United States.