The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution declaring Israel’s continued occupation and de facto annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights "illegal" and demanding its full withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 line.
The draft text, submitted by Egypt, passed on Tuesday with 123 votes in favour, seven against and 41 abstentions.
The resolution states that Israel’s 14 December 1981 decision to impose its "laws, jurisdiction and administration" on the occupied Syrian Golan is "null and void and has no validity whatsoever."
It "demands once more that Israel withdraw from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of 4 June 1967 in implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions," adding that Israel’s continued occupation and de facto annexation constitute "a stumbling block in the way of achieving a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region."
Syria’s representative to the UN Security Council, Ibrahim Alali, said on Tuesday that the occupied Golan Heights is Syrian territory, affirming his country’s right to fully reclaim it from Israel.
Syria’s state-run Al-Ikhbariyah TV quoted Alali as saying: "Our talks with Israel were conducted under the follow-up of President Donald Trump to address the security concerns of both sides."
He stressed that "Syria prioritises peaceful and diplomatic avenues."
He noted that "these talks with Israel do not in any way address the fate of the occupied Syrian Golan."
The Syrian envoy underlined that "the occupied Syrian Golan is Arab Syrian land, and our country has the full right to restore it completely."
Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967, and expanded further into the buffer zone and Mount Hermon in southern Syria after the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime.
It later declared that the 1967 disengagement agreement between the two sides had collapsed.
