THE UN General Assembly has again voted by majority to recognise Syria’s rightful sovereignty over the occupied Golan, and on considering all the measures taken by the Israeli occupation forces inside Syria as null and void.
Eighty-eight states voted in favour of the draft resolution, while eight states voted against it along with the Israeli occupation entity – while 62 states abstained from voting.
The resolution demands that Israel, the occupying authority, completely withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of June 4th, 1967 and abide by the resolutions related to the Golan, particularly the resolution no. 497 for the year 1981 which considers Israel’s decision to impose its laws, authority and administration on the Golan as null and void and has no legal effect.
The resolution reiterated that all the measures taken by Israel with the aim of changing the character of the occupied Syrian Golan ‘are null and void’, and they represent a flagrant violation of the international law and Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and that they have no legal effect, particularly the declaration of US President Donald Trump regarding the Golan and all the US unilateral measures relevant to the occupied Syrian Golan.
The resolution calls on the UN member states not to recognise any of the measures which are taken by Israel in the occupied Syrian Golan and which contradict international law.
Meanwhile, Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jaafari, has reiterated Syria calls on the UN to take urgent measures to put its resolutions into force and end the Israeli occupation of the Arab territories, affirming that Syria’s sovereign right on Golan is non-negotiable, inalienable and can’t be prescribed.
Al-Jaafari added during a session for the UN General Assembly on the situation in the Middle East that the General Assembly always calls on the Israeli occupation entity to end its occupation of Syrian Golan, but the international community’s inability to put its relevant resolutions into effect has doubled the obstacles standing in the way of achieving peace in the region.
He said that one of those obstacles is the US Administration proclamations regarding Golan and Jerusalem.
Al-Jaafari renewed Syria’s condemnation of the US administration’s proclamations as flagrant violations of international law and the UN charter.
‘One of the principles of international legitimacy is that the UN General Assembly has to call, in each session, on Israel to end its occupation of the occupied Syrian Golan and stress that any procedures taken by Israel to force its custody and administration on Golan are illegal, null and void, and they have no impact in light of resolution No. 497 of 1981,’ al-Jaafari added.
He reiterated Syria’s permanent and principled stance in support of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to establish their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of refugees to return home in the light of resolution No.194 for 1948.
- The Committee for Discussing the Constitution in Syria has continued its fourth round meetings for the fourth day in a row at the UN headquarters in Geneva, with the participation of the national delegation and other delegations.
The fourth round started last Monday in Geneva, where the national delegation underlined the necessity of adopting the issue of return of the refugees as a ‘basic national principle’ because of its importance on various levels, mainly on the humanitarian level.
They also stressed the importance that some countries stop politicising this humanitarian file, in addition to emphasising two basic national principles: the humanitarian file and the issue of lifting the illegal sanctions imposed on the Syrian people.
The third round of the meeting of the mini-committee was held at the UN headquarters in Geneva last August, and it came within an agenda titled ‘Basic National Principles’, while the first and the second rounds were held in Geneva during November last year.
As for the issue of lifting sanctions, statements affirmed that since the beginning of the war, countries hostile to the Syrian people have used the weapons of terrorism and sanctions to break the will of the people and force them to accept the schemes outlined by those countries for the region.
Members of the delegation went on to say that any Syrian-Syrian meeting working within the national framework today should send a clear message that sanctions should be lifted immediately, which would help Syrian refugees return to their homeland and contribute to its reconstruction.
The fourth round of the meetings began in Geneva yesterday, as the national delegation stressed during the first day the necessity of adopting the issue of the return of refugees as a comprehensive national principle because of its importance at various levels, especially at the humanitarian level.
- Syria reaffirmed that it has fulfilled all its obligations regarding the Chemical Weapons’ Convention, saying that the media campaigns of escalation and defamation carried out by the United States and its Western allies through spreading lies to distort Syria’s image and mislead public opinion will not affect its determination and will to go ahead in the implementation of its commitments.
‘Since Syria joined the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in 2013, it has fulfilled all its commitments and fulfilled the elimination of its chemical weapons and production facilities in an ideal and unprecedented manner under difficult and complex conditions it has faced during its war on terrorism,’ Syria’s permanent representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, told the twenty-fifth session of the Conference of the States/ Parties to the Convention on the Prohibition of Weapons.
Sabbagh added that Syria stresses the need for serious work to achieve the universality of the agreement and urges the Organisation to intensify its efforts to call on Israel, which has not yet joined the agreement to join and ensure the establishment of an effective global system against chemical weapons, pointing out that Syria supports making the Middle East region free from weapons of mass destruction to guarantee regional security and peace.
He clarified that the repeated attacks committed by Israel in the Middle East region, particularly against the Syrian sovereignty, are evidence of its threat to the security and stability of the region and proof of its involvement in supporting terrorist groups and obstructing their defeat by the Syrian Arab Army.
