Mideast situation/Golan – LAS resolution – Letter from UAE

GENERAL ASSEMBLY SECURITY COUNCIL

Fifty-first session Fifty-first year

Item 33 of the preliminary list*

THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST

          Letter dated 10 April 1996 from the Permanent Representative of

          the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations addressed to the

Secretary-General

As Chairman of the Arab Group for the month of April 1996, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy of resolution 5542, entitled "The occupied Syrian Arab Golan", which was adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States at its one hundred and fifth regular session on 21 March 1996.

I should be grateful if you would have this letter and its annex circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under item 33 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Mohammad J. SAMHAN     Ambassador        

Permanent Representative     Chairman of the Arab Group

* A/51/50.

96-09178 (E)   150496  170496/…

 ANNEX

            Resolution 5542, entitled "The occupied Syrian Arab Golan",

            as adopted by the Council of the League of Arab States at 

its one hundred and fifth session on 21 March 1996

A

The Council of the League of Arab States,

Having examined:

Following with increased concern and apprehension the continued Israeli occupation of the Syrian Arab Golan, Israel's persistent refusal to implement the resolutions of the United Nations and to submit to the will of the international community, which considers the Israeli occupation and Israel's decision to annex the Syrian Arab Golan as null and void and lacking any legal validity,

Having carefully studied the situation in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan in the light of the practices of the Israeli occupation authorities in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, international treaties, international law, the resolutions of the United Nations and developments in the peace process,

Recalling its previous resolutions as well as international resolutions affirming the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force,

Decides

1. To reaffirm its resolution 4126 of 13 January 1982 and subsequent resolutions, the most recent being resolution 5493 of 21 September 1995, which provides that all measures adopted by the Israeli occupation authorities with a view to altering the juridical, natural and demographic situation in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan are to be rejected and that Israel's measures to extend its sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Arab Golan are to be considered as unlawful and null and void and as constituting a violation of international agreements, the Charter of the United Nations and United Nations resolutions, in particular Security Council resolution 497 (1981) and General Assembly resolution 50/32 B of 4 December 1995, which affirm, respectively, that the Israeli decision of 14 December 1981 annexing the occupied Syrian Arab Golan is unlawful and null and void and that the Knesset decision of 11 November 1991 to the same effect is null and void, has no validity whatever and constitutes a grave violation of Security Council resolution 497 (1981);

2. To call upon the co-sponsors of the peace process and the international community to assume their responsibility to require Israel to comply with the applicable international resolutions calling for complete withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Arab Golan and to support Syria in its firm commitment to the achievement of a just and comprehensive peace in the region;

3. To support the resistance of the Syrian Arab residents of the area and stand by them in their opposition to Israel's occupation and repressive practices and their persistence in clinging to their land and their Syrian Arab identity; and to reaffirm the applicability of the 1949 Geneva Convention to the citizens of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan;

4. To appeal to the international community, and especially the co-sponsors of the Madrid Peace Conference on the Middle East, to prevail upon Israel to implement the United Nations resolutions on complete Israeli withdrawal from the Golan to the line of 4 June 1967 and from the occupied Arab territories;

5. To reaffirm the resolute support of the Arab States for Syria's just claim and its right to the return of all of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan, in accordance with the principles governing the peace process and the relevant United Nations resolutions.

B

The Council of the League of Arab States,

Expressing its deep concern at continuing attempts by Israel to defy the will of the international community and to have the Knesset adopt decisions reaffirming those decisions on annexations that the international community has declared to be null and void, in particular the approval by the Knesset on 13 March 1996, in first reading, of a bill that would confirm the annexation of the Golan,

Decides

1. To condemn the ongoing attempts in the Israeli Knesset to perpetuate the occupation of the Syrian Golan; and to regard these attempts as undermining the efforts being made for the success of the peace process and as being in defiance of the will of the international community and the resolutions of the United Nations, particularly Security Council resolution 497 (1981), which regards the Israeli measures relating to the Golan as null and void;

2. To call attention to the dangers inherent in these attempts, given that they reveal attitudes that are inimical to peace; and to call upon the co-sponsors of the peace process and the international community to take immediate action to halt these attempts and to save the peace process.

Resolution 5542

One hundred and fifth regular session

3rd meeting

21 March 1996

—–