Syria Requests UN Security Council Meeting on Golan

TEHRAN (defapress) – Syria has asked the United Nations Security Council to hold an urgent meeting on the US decision to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, a report said.

News ID: 76432

Date: 27 March 2019 - 12:50

US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation Monday in which the United States recognized Israel’s “sovereignty” over the strategic plateau, despite UN resolutions that call for Israel’s withdrawal from the Golan.

In a letter seen by AFP, the Syrian mission to the United Nations asked the council presidency, held by France, to schedule an urgent meeting to “discuss the situation in the occupied Syrian Golan and the recent flagrant violation of the relevant Security Council’s resolution by a permanent member-state.”

The French presidency did not immediately schedule the meeting and diplomats said there would be a discussion at the council about the request.

On Friday, Syria wrote a separate letter urging the council to uphold resolutions demanding that Israel withdraw from the Golan.

The council is scheduled to discuss the latest crisis on Wednesday during a meeting on renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force deployed between Israel and Syria in the Golan, known as UNDOF.

Five European countries with seats on the council earlier rejected Trump’s decision and voiced concern that the US move would have broad consequences in the Middle East.

Two of Washington’s closest allies — Britain and France — joined Belgium, Germany and Poland to declare that the European position had not changed and that the Golan remained Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, in line with international law enshrined in UN resolutions.

Three UN Security Council resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the Golan. Israel occupied the strategic plateau in the 1967 Six Day War and in 1981 applied Israeli law to the territory, a step tantamount to annexation. The move was never recognized by the international community, which considers the area to be occupied.

On Tuesday, world nations and organizations also joined voices with Syria to condemn the recent decision by Trump.

A statement by the Arab League on Monday censured Trump’s decision, saying, “It does not change the legal status of the area in any way.”

Russia also warned against the repercussions of Trump’s decision, which it said “ignores all international procedures” and would “only aggravate the situation.”

“Unfortunately, this could drive a new wave of tensions in the Middle East region,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a radio broadcast on Monday

Lebanon, Qatar, President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, and Head of Hamas Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh were also among other countries and figures who censured the move by the US president.

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