GENERAL Assembly
Thirty-sixth session
Item 33 of the preliminary list*
THE SITUATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Note verbal dated 24 February 1981 from the Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General
The Permanent Mission of the Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations presents its compliments to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and, with reference to its note dated 27 October 1980 (A/35/571-5/14239) to which was annexed a letter addressed to the Secretary-General by His Excellency Mr. Abdul Halim Khaddam, Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Syrian Arab Republic, has the honor to inform him of the following.
The Israeli authorities are practicing in the occupied Syrian Arab Golan Heights different methods of terrorism, pressure and coercion; implementing different measures with the objective of changing the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan Heights aiming at its ultimate annexation to Israel. The most recent of these measures was compelling the citizens of the Syrian Arab Republic in the occupied Golan Heights to renounce their original Syrian nationality and forcing them to obtain an Israeli one. Those Syrian citizens filed suits against these measures to the Israeli supreme court, in order to invalidate these illegal measures.
The Government of the Syrian Arab Republic strongly protests against these measures and practices that constitute a blatant violation of the provisions of the United Nations Charter, principles of international law, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Geneva Convention of 1949 and requests that the Secretary- General take appropriate measures in this regard. The Syrian Government reaffirms its legitimate right to safeguard the legal status of its citizens and their nationality.
The permanent mission of the Syrian Arab republic to the United Nations kindly request the Secretary-General to circulate the present note as an official document of the General Assembly, under item 33 of the preliminary list, and of the Security Council.
