Taking back Israel-occupied land a priority, Syria tells UN Security Council

Syria says at the United Nations that it considers taking back its Israel-occupied Golan Heights through all possible legal instruments to be a priority for the Arab country.

Bashar al-Ja’afari, Damascus’ envoy to the UN made the remarks to a UN Security Council session on Tuesday, the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Damascus would endeavor to retake the territory — which has been occupied by Tel Aviv since 1967 — “through all means, which are guaranteed by the international law,” the agency cited him as saying.

Tel Aviv, the official said, keeps looting the properties of the Golan’s residents in order to expand its illegally-built settlements there.

“Israeli continued occupation of Arab lands represents the most dangerous challenge to the credibility and prestige of the international law’s rules and conventions,” the ambassador said.

He also took the Security Council to task for failing to implement the resolutions it passes against the Israeli regime’s continued occupation of Arab territories.

Some countries, he said, take advantage of this failure to bolster the regime’s aggressive behavior, he noted, in a pointed reference to the United States.

Washington has endorsed the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, and recognized East Jerusalem al-Quds in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank as the regime’s “capital.”

Ja’afari denounced the US’s pro-Israeli measures as an attempt at reversing realities and disavowing legal obligations.

He finally said Tel Aviv continued to attack the Syrian territory as means of invigorating anti-Damascus terrorists.

The regime launches regular sorties against Syria, targeting the country’s defenses or the supplies intended for the foreign forces, who assist Damascus in its counter-terrorism operations.