Damascus, SANA – The United Nations Association of Syria held a symposium titled “Palestine in the League of Nations and the United Nations between 1922 and 2014: A General View” marking the UN Day which is marked on Oct. 24th.
In a speech delivered at the Arab Cultural Center in Abu Rummaneh in Damascus by the Association’s Secretary Saeed al-Halabi on his behalf, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Bashar al-Jaafari stressed that the Palestinian cause will remain Syria’s central cause.
Al-Jaafari stressing Syria’s adherence to its right to restore the occupied Syrian Golan up to the line of June 4th 1967, as well as its rejection of Israeli procedures to change its national, geographic, and demographic features in flagrant violation of relevant UNSC resolution, particularly resolution no. 497.
He said that Syria reiterates its support to the Palestinian people’s legitimate and firm rights, especially the rights to return and self-determination, in addition to their right to establishing their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital and obtaining full UN membership.
He also noted that the so-called international community, represented by the UN, has failed to achieve comprehensive and just peace and force Israel to respect and comply with hundreds of the UN resolutions on ending the Israeli occupation and preventing it from committing crimes against the Palestinians and the Syrian people in the occupied Syrian Golan.
Syria’s Representative to the UN added that this failure is a disgrace to the UN and the countries which support Israel while at the same time boasting about international law, democracy, and human rights, the values which we highly respect and which turned to be worthless and neglected when it comes to the just Palestinian cause.
“The problem doesn’t lie in the UN Charter’s provisions; rather it is in the unwillingness of the powerful western countries to implement these provisions in a manner removed from their double standards,” he added.
Al-Jaafari said that the crisis in Syria has exposed the fragility of the UN structure and mechanisms, revealing that it is dominated by a number of states, which is mainly manifested in the impact of influential member states and the Arab Gulf petrodollars on making decisions, whether said decisions serve the achievement of international peace and security or not, in addition to revealing the contradiction between the performance of the UN General Secretariat and its Charter which is clearly shown in the reports and statements made by several UN senior officials who are supposed to protect the interest of the 193 member states instead of serving the interests and agendas of a group of influential states.
He pointed out that the crisis in Syria also exposed the unacceptable silence of the UN and its various bodies towards flagrant violations of international law and serious threats to international peace and security embodied in the policies of countries that support the terrorism targeting Syria which previously targeted other countries including Iraq and Libya.
For his part, member of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party’s regional leadership, Khalaf al-Miftah, stressed the UN’s key role and the importance of respecting its resolutions with the aim of achieving balance on the international level.
In turn, President of the United Nations Association of Syria, Dr. George Jabbour, underlined the suffering of the Palestinian people due to the Israeli occupation’s unjust practices before and after the foundation of the UN, pointing out that resistance is the only hope to achieve victory.
For her part, Shahinaz Fakoush said that the Palestinian people’s rights to return, independence, and self-determination cannot be abolished or waived, as they are sacrosanct according to the UN resolutions, indicating that these rights have been confirmed in more than 14 resolutions adopted by the majority of the UN General Assembly member states.
Rasha Raslan / Hazem Sabbagh