Syrian envoy to the United Nations has denounced relentless Israeli missile strikes on his country, occupied Palestinian territories and southern Lebanon, saying the aggression takes place amid the UN Security Council’s “unacceptable” silence and support from the West.
Bassam Sabbagh, Syria's permanent representative to the United Nations, speaking at a Security Council session on the situation in the Middle East accused the Israeli regime of increasing its footprints in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
“The Israeli regime presses ahead with its hostile practices in order to consolidate its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights, and prolong its authority in violation of international principles and resolutions,” Sabbagh said in his remarks.
He called on the world body to discharge its responsibilities, and help in ending the Israeli occupation of Arab lands and holding the Tel Aviv regime’s authorities responsible for their vicious acts.
“Syria reiterates its inalienable right to fully take back occupied Golan Heights by means of all available means guaranteed by the international law,” Sabbagh underlined.
The senior Syrian diplomat said an Israeli attack from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights had killed three Syrian soldiers and injured seven others near the capital Damascus several days ago, denouncing it as a blatant act of aggression on Syrian lands.
On Friday, Syria called on the UN Security Council to condemn Israel's latest attack on its territories.
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in a statement, urged the UN to exert pressure on Israel to abide by the 1947 Agreement on Disengagement, which stipulates in its first paragraph a ceasefire on land, sea, and air between Syria and the Israeli-occupied territories.
The statement said Syria reserves the right to respond to the Israeli strikes by appropriate means in accordance with international law and the UN Charter.
It stressed that the Security Council’s failure to adopt necessary measures to prevent and condemn repeated Israeli missile strikes in Syria shows the UN body’s incapability to honor its obligations concerning establishment of peace and security in the Middle East region and across the world.
The statement further highlighted that such Israeli attacks cannot be addressed in isolation from US acts of aggression, violations of international principles, occupation of northeastern Syria, plunder of Syrian energy reserves, and delivery of various weapons to Takfiri militants in the country.
Syria has been in the grip of foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the Israeli regime and its Western and regional allies aid Takfiri terrorist groups that continue to wreak havoc in the country.
Israel frequently targets military positions inside Syria, especially those of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah which has played a key role in helping the Syrian army in its fight against foreign-backed terrorists.
The Tel Aviv regime rarely comments on its cowardly attacks on Syrian territories, which many see as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s phenomenal success in confronting and decimating terrorism.
Israel has been the principal supporter of terrorist groups that oppose the democratically-elected government of President Bashar al-Assad since the foreign-backed militancy erupted in Syria.