SYRIA has warned that it may use its right to self defence after recent Israeli air raids against a civilian airport near Damascus by striking Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport if the UN Security Council fails to shoulder its responsibilities and act against Israeli aggression.
Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja’afari said on Tuesday that ‘the unlimited support’ provided by some permanent members of the Security Council, namely France, Britain and the US, has encouraged Israel to continue its air raids on Syria, preventing the entire UN body from assuming its responsibilities.
Speaking at a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East, Ja’afari said that if the 15-member body fails to adopt measures to stop Israel, Syria would practice its ‘legitimate right of self-defense’ and retaliate against the regime’s attacks.
‘Isn’t it time now for the UN Security Council to stop the Israeli repeated aggressions on the Syrian Arab Republic territories?’ he asked. ‘Or is it required to draw the attention of the war-makers in this Council by exercising our legitimate right to defend ourself and respond to the Israeli aggression on Damascus International Civil Airport in the same way on Tel Aviv Airport?’ he continued.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Lieutenant General Gadi Eisenkot, the Israeli army’s outgoing chief of staff, said that the regime had carried out ‘thousands’ of aerial assaults in Syria in recent years.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Syria’s UN envoy stressed his country’s firm and non-negotiable right to wrest control over the occupied Golan Heights, urging Israel to completely withdraw from the region.
- The Palestinian Authority has said that it will refuse American aid in its entirety after Washington cut humanitarian funds to Palestinians, adding that accepting such help could carry unwelcome legal consequences for the Ramallah-based administration.
The Authority ‘sent an official letter to the US administration requesting it stop all aid to the PA, including assistance to the Palestinian security services,’ senior negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Tuesday.
Erekat further said the decision was made due to concerns over the so-called Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA), approved by President Trump in October 2018, which makes it possible for US citizens to sue foreign entities that receive US aid. This may prompt US citizens to start exposing the PA to ‘costly’ lawsuits over alleged ‘past Palestinian attacks’.
