Mideast situation – Letter from Syria

Letter dated 18 March 1986 from the Permanent Representative of

the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

With reference to the Israeli letter circulated as document A/40/212-S/17913 and dated 12 March 1986, 1 wish to inform you of the following:

I. The establishment of a lasting, just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East on the basis of the resolutions of the General Assembly and international legality is the goal towards which Syria's foreign policy strives, and not "maintenance of a … state of war" as the Israeli letter alleges.

Syria has called for and continues to call for the settlement of international disputes in accordance with the provisions of the Charter and the principles of justice and international law, in particular the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force and the principle of the right of peoples to self-determination. Syria has been assiduous in urging the need to find a just, lasting and comprehensive solution to the Middle East question within the framework of the United Nations and in accordance with its pertinent resolutions on the basis of the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from all the Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967 and the guaranteeing of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

Accordingly, Syria has supported the repeated resolutions of the General Assembly, in particular resolution 38/58 C of 13 December 1983 calling for the convening of an international peace conference on the Middle East under United Nations auspices with a view to arriving at a just, lasting and comprehensive solution to the Middle East question that will ensure Israel's withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and the attainment of the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian Arab people, including the right to return, the right to self-determination and the right. to establish its own independent State in its national territory.

Whereas Syria has declared its desire for the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, Israel assiduously defies the international community by its rejection of the resolutions of the General Assembly, in particular resolution 38/58 C and the resolutions based thereon, and rejects all solutions and peace initiatives based on international legality. Israel continues its occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories and the other occupied Arab territories, denies the Palestinian people its national rights and pursues policies of annexation and settlement of the occupied Arab territories and of terrorism directed against the indigenous Arabs suffering under occupation, in accordance with Zionist plans to rid the Arab territories of their indigenous inhabitants and to create a racist Zionist entity extending from the Euphrates to the Nile.  This confirms once again that Israel is not concerned about peace, contrary to what the Israeli letter alleges, and is not peace-loving. It violates its commitments under tho Charter, and this established fact has been stated in numerous resolutions of the General Assembly. It is also established that Israel's policy is based solely on rejection of the establishment of a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in accordance with United Nations resolutions and international legality. Israel's rejection is confirmed by the launching of further aggression and further threats against the Arab States, and most particularly against Syria. It has become clear that the policy of force and the imposition of the fait accompli which Israel pursues, with the unlimited support of the United States of America, constitutes a major obstacle to arrival at a comprehensive and just peace in the region. Israel bears the exclusive responsibility for its obduracy and its rejection of peace efforts and for the continuation of tension, the lack of stability and the breach of international peace and security.

II. Syria has endeavoured to build up its own military strength in order to achieve a strategic balance, which is only in accordance with its legitimate right of self-defence, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter, in the face of the overwhelming Zionist threat and Israel's constant aggressive and expansionist ambitions. In its endeavour to achieve a strategic balance, Syria merely seeks to create more propitious circumstances and wider possibilities for arrival at a just and lasting peace in the region, not the contrary. The Israeli threats directed against Syria because of its endeavour to establish a strategic balance are a part of Israel's assiduous attempts to impose its will, its plans and its hegemony on the Arab side.

III. Israel openly uses terrorism to consolidate its occupation and to intensify and strengthen its racist, expansionist policy of aggression. Ever since its establishment, it has adopted planned official terrorism as an official policy. Hence the recent actions of the Israeli occupation authorities in escalating their repressive operations in the Golan and in southern Lebanon:  in the Syrian Arab Golan alone, it arrested more than 65 Arab citizens, and it is continuing its aggression against peaceful villages in southern Lebanon. This is in addition to its seizure of more than 200 Lebanese women, old men and children and their removal to the occupied territories and its act of air piracy against the Libyan aircraft in international airspace.

IV. The Syrian Arab Republic, in reiterating its condemnation of all forms of international terrorism in general, and of Zionist terrorism in particular, declares that it will continue to be keenly concerned about the distinction between terrorism and the national resistance of peoples struggling for liberation, self-determination and the elimination of foreign occupation. National resistance is not only a right but a duty carried out by peoples in order to regain their usurped rights and resist foreign occupation and domination. Accordingly, the international community is bound, under the Charter and the pertinent resolutions of the United Nations, to support the struggle of the Arab people against Israeli occupation, domination and usurpation. Syria is determined to continue to support the Arab resistance because of its national commitment towards the Arab people in general, and towards the people of Palestine and Lebanon in particular.

I request that this letter be circulated as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 37 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Dia-Allah EL-FATTAL

Ambassador

Permanent Representative

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*A/41/50/Rev.1.