UN adopts resolution in favor of Syria sovereignty over occupied Golan Heights

The United Nations General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted in favor of a resolution on the permanent sovereignty of Syria over natural resources of the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

According to Syria’s official news agency SANA, the resolution, which was based on the recommendations of the Second Committee — Economic and Financial Committee – was adopted by a record vote of 159 in favor, 7 against and 13 abstentions in a Sunday session of the 193-member assembly.

The resolution reaffirmed the inalienable rights of the Syrians in the occupied Syrian Golan to sovereign over its natural resources, including land, water and energy. It also demands that Israeli occupation authorities stop from exploiting, damaging, depleting and endangering natural resources in the strategically-important territory.

The assembly on Sunday also called on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit a report during the next session on the implementation of the resolution, including issues related to the increasing impact of exploiting, damaging and depleting natural resources in the region by Israeli forces.

Furthermore, the Syrian delegation to the UN called on Guterres to denounce and stop some “dangerous” practices of Israel in the occupied Golan Heights that “violate” the international law.

They specifically pointed to one of “most dangerous” of these practices which is holding a so-called “local council’ elections” for the first time in the villages of the region.

On December 1, the majority of the assembly adopted a resolution urging the Israeli regime to withdraw from the entirety of the Syrian Golan Heights it occupied some half a century ago.

In 1967, the Israeli regime waged a full-scale war against Arab territories, including those of Syria, and occupied a large swathe of Syria’s Golan Heights.

In 1973, another war, known as the Arab-Israeli War or the Yom Kippur War, broke out between the Israeli regime and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria. A year later, a UN-brokered ceasefire came into force, according to which the Israeli regime and the Syrian government agreed to separate their troops, and create a buffer zone patrolled by the UN Disengagement and Observer Force (UNDOF).

In late 1981, Israel passed the Golan Heights Law that extended the regime’s “laws, jurisdiction and administration” to the Golan Heights, effectively annexing the territory to Israel.

A few days after the law’s passage in Israel’s Knesset, UN Security Council Resolution 497 determined the law as “null and void and without international legal effect.”

Early this month, the UN General Assembly once again denounced Israel’s non-compliance with the UNSC 1981 resolution. The so-called Israeli law is not recognized by the international community.

The fact that most UN member states continue to support these resolutions shows that they are committed to the goals and purposes of the UN Charter, and that they reject foreign occupation and support Syria’s right to reclaim the entirety of its Israeli-occupied lands, Munzer added.

Back in July, the Israeli military said that it had deployed artillery and armored reinforcements to the occupied mountainous plateau, claiming that the move was the result of a situation assessment “in light of developments on the Syrian Golan Heights.”