Syria today appealed to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Security Council to strongly condemn the decision taken by Israel last week to establish nine new settlements in the occupied Golan Heights and increase the population of agricultural settlements there by 50 percent. In identical messages, Syria called on all Security Council members, especially the countries “influential on Israel,” to press Israel to reverse its dangerous decisions “that threaten peace in the region, especially after the Arab initiatives to revive the peace process.”
In its messages, Syria condemned the statement made by the Israeli Prime Minister on December 29 last year, in which he considered “the Golan as an integral part of Israel.” The messages pointed out that Israel’s hostile decisions came just weeks after the Syrian initiative to resume peace negotiations between the two states and to present the Syrian project to the United Nations Security Council for the complete removal of weapons of mass destruction from the entire Middle East, following a Security Council resolution that deems Israel’s failure to withdraw from the Golan Heights as an obstacle to progress in peace in the Middle East.
Syria considered in the messages it sent today that Israel’s insistence on pursuing its aggressive policies is further evidence of its desire to create new facts on the ground and tighten its occupation of others’ lands. Last Saturday, Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam accused Israel of “thwarting” any peace move in the Middle East in a direct initial response to Israel’s project to expand settlements on the Golan Heights, occupied since 1967. Khaddam told journalists that “this is part of Israel’s policy to thwart any peaceful direction in the region,” adding that “this action, along with the ongoing killing of Palestinians, confirms that Israel continues its hostility to peace and the realization of the Zionist project, which fundamentally contradicts the interests of the Arab nation and its future.”
Last Wednesday, an Israeli ministerial committee decided to increase the population of agricultural settlements in the Golan Heights by fifty percent. The Golan Heights, occupied by Israel, holds strategic importance for Israel as it overlooks the Galilee, and it is also crucial for Syria as it is a key point on the road to Damascus.