UNSC members slam US move to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over occupied Syrian Golan

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 28 (APP):Syria has denounced US recognition of “Israeli sovereignty” over the occupied Golan Heights as part of a “criminal project” , while stressing the importance of upholding international law.

“This is a criminal project or plan for which the US government and its allies have used all tools at their disposal,” the Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Jaafari, told the UN Security Council which met on Wednesday to discus President Donald Trump’s Monday decision to recognize “Israeli sovereignty” over the Syrian territories of Golan Heights.
The plan, he said, is aimed at guaranteeing chaos and destruction in the region, and dividing the people of the region on religious and ethnic basis in order to “build a new reality”.
“From the first day of this terrorist war led by governments of certain known countries, we said that the main goal of this war was to ensure Israeli occupation of Arab territories and to ensure that the occupation can go on forever on the basis of the plan put forward by the United States,” he said.

The US president’s recent decision on the occupied Golan Heights “shows just how correct we were at the time,” the Syrian envoy added.

Trump signed a decree recognizing Israeli “sovereignty” over the occupied Golan at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington on Monday.

Since then, the US has been criticized by many countries of the world, including Pakistan.

In a declaration issued on Wednesday, EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini’s office announced that the bloc “does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.”

Wednesday’s meeting of the Security Council saw US isolated, as other member states opposed Trump’s move on the occupied Golan Heights.
British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce told the council that the US decision was in contravention of that 1981 resolution, which declared “null and void and without international legal effect” the Israeli annexation of Golan in 1981.

Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said Washington had violated UN resolutions and warned it could fuel instability in the Middle East.