Yesterday, Abdel Halim Khaddam, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Syria, delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly. In his speech, he specifically stated that Israel, by violating the commitments it made upon joining the United Nations in 1949, especially by disregarding the partition plans determined by the United Nations and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, has rendered itself “unworthy of recognition by the international community.”
The Syrian minister emphasized that Israel is a “racist entity” established through imperialist and Zionist interests, which led to the expulsion of Arabs from Palestine. Since then, these Arabs have been denied their right to return as mandated by the United Nations. Khaddam urged the United Nations to unequivocally declare that a just peace in the Middle East is unattainable unless Israeli forces withdraw from the Arab territories occupied since 1967 and reverse all changes made by Israel in the population, economic, and cultural structures in the occupied territories.
Furthermore, the Syrian Minister stated that if Israel fails to meet these demands, the United Nations should promptly invoke the measures outlined in its Charter to strip Israel of its membership status, compel its complete withdrawal from all occupied territories, and restore the national rights of the Palestinian people.
The Syrian Minister called upon the United Nations General Assembly to address the root causes of the volatile situation in the Middle East and take action, recognizing that the restoration of national and other rights for the Palestinian people is an inevitable requirement for achieving a just and lasting peace.
In this context, Khaddam emphasized that the exercise of the Palestinian people’s unquestionable right to self-determination necessitates, in accordance with relevant United Nations resolutions, the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and the dismantlement of all measures implemented by Israel to deprive the Palestinian people of their national and human rights.
