Mideast situation/Golan Heights – Letter from Syria

LETTER DATED 3 MARCH 1986 FROM THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE

OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC TO THE UNITED NATIONS

ADDRESSED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

On instructions from my Government, I have the honour to inform you of the following:

Continuing its systematic defiance of the Charter of the United Nations and the resolutions of the General Assembly and the Security Council on the occupied Arab territories, Israel has since last week stepped up its terrorist and repressive operations in the occupied Syrian Arab territories of the Golan Heights, with the aim of destroying their Syrian Arab identity and expelling the Syrian Arab inhabitants from their land and property, replacing them by foreign settlers and settlements .

Most recently, the Israeli occupying authorities arrested 45 Syrian Arab citizens of the occupied Golan Heights.

These repressive Israeli practices and policies in the Syrian Arab Golan Heights constitute not only a flagrant violation of the provisions of the United Nations Charter and the human rights Covenants but also a serious breach of the rules of international law, in particular the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (12 August 1949), the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and General Assembly, in particular resolutions 36/226 of 1981, ES-9/1 of 1982, 37/123 A of 1982, 38/180 of 1983, 39/146 B of 1984 and 40/168 B of 1985, and the resolutions of other international organizations. It is once again clear that Israel is not a peace-loving country and does not comply with its obligations under the United Nations Charter or Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 497 (1981) which states, inter alia, 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 demands that Israel rescind forthwith its decision.

The cruel campaign currently being waged against the Syrian Arab inhabitants of the Golan Heights once again underscores Israel's aggressive, racist and fascist nature and its determination to defy the international community by violating the Charter and the relevant resolutions of the United Nations.

The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic reserves the right to request a meeting of the Security Council to consider these recent violations and this wave of arbitrary arrests and to take the necessary steps in accordance with the Charter, draws the attention of the Security Council to the fact that occupation, however temporary, constitutes aggression by virtue of General Assembly resolution 3314 (XXIX), and requests that States members of the Security Council be informed of the seriousness of the situation and that this letter be distributed as a document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Dia-Allah EL-FATTAL

Permanent Representative

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