Syria: Israel’s Licensing US Company to Drill for Oil in Golan Violates SC Resolution

Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on Thursday addressed two identical letters to the Security Council President and the United Nations Secretary-General on the Israeli Authorities’ intention to drill for oil in the occupied Syrian Golan.

”The Israeli Ministry of Energy granted a license to the US Genie Energy Company to drill for oil in the occupied Syrian Golan, ” said the letters, ” as the Israeli Yediot Ahronot daily said in its Feb. 21 2013 issue that the Israeli Minister of Energy, Uzi Landau, approved a request by the Company to commence work in drilling.”

The ministry stressed that this illegitimate procedure is a flagrant violation of Security Council Resolution No. 497 for the year 1981, as it aims to perpetuate a state of occupation and annexation, contrary to the SC resolution stating that “the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect” and calls upon Israel to rescind its decisions immediately.

The letters added that the procedure constitutes a violation of all the UN General Assembly’s decisions, especially the one titled ”Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources.”

”Syria warns of Israel’s dangerous attempts to take advantage of the current situation to perpetuate its occupation of the Syrian lands and steal their resources, in a flagrant violation of the principle of permanent sovereignty of the peoples under foreign occupation over their natural resources and inalienable rights,” added the letters.

The letters also pointed to the international community’s disregard for Israel’s illegal practices and constant breaches of the Security Council resolutions, which, the letters added, prodded Israel to adopt such procedure that challenges, once again, the credibility of the UN.

The ministry added that the UN has to put an end to Israel’s disregard for its resolutions and laws, which allows it to act as if exempted from its commitments under international law.

”Therefore, Syria calls on the UN and the General Assembly to enforce their jurisdiction in ensuring Israel’s commitment to the law that bars the occupation state from adopting any procedure that might harm the safety of the occupied land in all its natural and demographic components.”

The letters said that Syria stresses the above-mentioned Company’s belonging to a UN permanent state, which doubles that state’s responsibility for ensuring its companies’ abidance by the international law and the relevant UN resolutions.

”Syria calls upon the international community to act beyond the pro forma condemnation of the Israeli violation of the Syrian lands , and stresses the importance of laying down the appropriate mechanism for obliging Israel to respect and implement the UN Security Council resolution no. 497 for the year 1981 and other relevant resolutions,” added the ministry.

The letters concluded by emphasizing the necessity that the UN act to prevent Israel from enforcing the aggressive procedure, which will preserve its credibility in implementing its resolutions related to ending the Israel occupation of occupied Arab lands.