‘Israel systematically and deliberately targeting civilian facilities’: Damascus

ByNews Desk- The Cradle 

Syria has called on the UN Security Council to condemn the attacks and to hold Tel Aviv accountable for its illegal strikes

Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, said on 28 October that Israel has launched direct and repeated military attacks on Syrian territory to “weaken the ability of its army to combat terrorist organizations.”

Israel has been launching attacks against alleged Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria since 2017. However, recently the occupation army has intensified attacks on Syria’s major airports in a bid to halt Tehran’s increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to its allies in Syria, Lebanon, and the occupied Palestinian territories, regional diplomatic and intelligence sources say.

“Since 2011, the Israeli authorities have been involved in funding terrorist groups, and they have been practicing the most heinous forms of gross and systematic violations of human rights law in the Syrian Golan since 1967,” Sabbagh said during the UN Security Council (UNSC) open debate.

Sabbagh went on to say on the situation in the region, including the Palestinian issue: “our right to restore the entire occupied Syrian Golan is an inalienable right that is not subject to bargaining or pressure, and is guaranteed by international law, in particular Security Council Resolution 497 of 1981.”

The Syrian official then asked why some countries ignored the necessity of respecting the UN Charter and the resolutions of international legitimacy towards the Israeli occupation of the Syrian Golan since 1967. He said: “Why did we not hear your voice against Israel, and why do we not see your enthusiasm in rejecting its decision to annex the occupied Syrian Golan and applying its laws to it? Why is it not required to implement Resolution 497?”

Moreover, the Syrian official called on the UNSC to “urgently assume its responsibilities” to condemn and stop the repeated Israeli attacks on Syrian sovereignty and to hold Tel Aviv  accountable for all their violations and aggressive practices that threaten regional and international peace and security.

Last month, five Syrian service members were killed in an Israeli missile attack near Damascus airport, the second on the facility within a month. Earlier in September, Israeli strikes left Aleppo International Airport out of service. The airport attacks also prevented urgent humanitarian aid from reaching the country.