Madam President,
The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic is following with deep concern the extremely dangerous events and developments in the Palestinian territories, and in particular the Arab city of Jerusalem. It also condemns, in the strongest terms, what the racist Israeli occupation forces and the extremist Israeli settlers are committing of crimes and barbaric attacks on worshipers and the defenders of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, which led to the martyrdom of several innocent civilians, the injury of dozens, and the arrest of hundreds. The practices of the Israeli occupation authorities and settler groups are illegal and immoral acts that reflect the true image of the usurping Israeli entity and pose a serious threat to the rights of the Palestinian people and to the historic and legal status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque, which the occupying power must respect.
The dubious silence of the so-called international community, and its unjustified inaction in stopping these attacks, along with the unlimited US support for the practices of occupation, aggression, settlement, Judaization, killing, destruction and confiscation of Palestinian lands, will not change the established facts of history, and will not make the Palestinian people give up their rights.
Syria affirms that the Palestinian question will remain Syria's main issue, and it renews its firm commitment to support the inalienable rights of the brotherly Palestinian people, and to stand by its side in its legitimate struggle to defend its land and its holy sites and restore its occupied lands and all its legitimate rights, especially its right to establish its independent state on its land with Jerusalem as its capital, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland, in accordance with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, foremost of which is Resolution No. 194 of 1948. Syria also reiterates its call to grant Palestine full membership in the United Nations.
Madam President,
The continuous and systematic Israeli attacks against Syria’s sovereignty represent a serious and grave threat to the security and stability of Syria and the region, and require immediate condemnation and urgent intervention by the Secretariat and the Security Council in order to protect the disengagement agreement of 1974, which was agreed upon under the auspices of the United Nations and in the presence of representatives of the governments of permanent members in the Security Council. This agreement stipulated in its first paragraph a cease-fire on land, sea and air.
Recently, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the Syrian Arab Republic addressed a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in which he informed him of a series of repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian territory, the last of which occurred on 14 April 2022, around the city of Damascus, warning that such attacks endanger the security and stability of Syria and the region, stressing Syria's preservation of the right to respond by appropriate means under international law and the UN Charter.
The silence about these repeated attacks, and about the practices carried out by Israel, the occupying power, towards our people in the occupied Syrian Golan, have encouraged the occupation authorities to continue their violations of international law and the UN Charter. With the protection of successive US administrations, the occupying power has expanded the circle of aggression against Syrian territory, which exposes peace and security in the Middle East to real dangers and puts the credibility of the United Nations and the effectiveness of its competent bodies and agencies at stake.
In this context, my country renews its call on the Under Secretary General for Political Affairs and the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, to carry out their duties in line with their mandates in this regard, and in accordance with the legal position of the United Nations towards the Israeli occupation of the occupied Syrian Golan and its illegal aggressions and practices, to raise this serious issue in the Security Council, and to compel the Israeli side to respect the relevant resolutions of the Council, to abide by the terms of the 1974 disengagement agreement, and to stop threatening regional and international peace and security.
Madam President,
The Israeli occupation authorities continue their provocative practices and violations of the basic rights of the people of the occupied Syrian Golan, in flagrant violation of international legitimacy resolutions, especially Resolutions No. 242, No. 338 and No. 497 of 1981, ignoring its international legal obligations as the occupying power, the rules of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. This is reflected in the continuation of Israeli measures aimed at changing the legal and demographic nature of the Golan, seizing land and property, looting natural resources and wealth, and implementing settlement plans and projects, with the aim of perpetuating and prolonging the occupation, and obliterating the Syrian identity of the occupied Syrian Golan in blatant defiance of all relevant United Nations resolutions.
The Syrian Arab Republic calls on the Security Council to urgently assume its responsibilities and put an end to the Israeli occupation and its aggressive practices, hold the Israeli occupation authorities accountable for these crimes and ensure that they do not go unpunished.
The Syrian Arab Republic reaffirms its firm adherence to its right to restore the entire Syrian Golan, occupied since June of 1967, by all available means guaranteed by international law as an imprescriptible eternal right. It stresses that all decisions and measures taken by Israel, the occupying power, to change the natural and demographic features of the Golan, or to impose its laws, authorities, and administration on it, are null and void and have no legal effect under international law and relevant United Nations resolutions, especially Security Council Resolution No. 497 (1981).
Thank you, Madam. President.