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18:46 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, March 7 (KUNA) -- Syria on Thursday complained to the UN
that Israel intends to carry out an oil drilling project in the occupied
Syrian Golan Heights, in violation of UN resolutions, and urged the Security
Council to take a "genuine action" to deter Israel from committing this
"aggression and provocation."
In identical letters to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Security Council
President Vitaly Churkin of Russia, Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said
that according to an article by the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth last
week, the Israeli Ministry of Energy has authorized the American company Genie
Energy to drill for oil in the area, and that the Energy Minister Uzi Landau
had agreed to an application from the company's Chief to begin drilling.
Ja'afari said Syria "deplores Israel's dangerous attempts to exploit the
current circumstances in the region to consolidate its occupation of Syrian
territory and plunder its resources," and stressed that Israel is "blatantly
violating the principle of the permanent sovereignty of peoples under foreign
occupation over their natural resources," and that the inalienable rights of
peoples under occupation "include sovereignty over their land, water and
energy resources, which must not be exploited, depleted or wasted."
He said Syria "demands that the Council should go beyond mere formal
condemnation of Israel's violation of Syrian territorial integrity, and
establish a mechanism compelling Israel to respect and implement relevant
Council resolutions."
He stressed that by taking "genuine action to prevent Israel from carrying
out this latest act of aggression and provocation," the United Nations would
uphold the credibility of its efforts to implement its resolutions on ending
the Israeli occupation of Arab territories and establish a just, comprehensive
and lasting peace in the region.
Failure to do so, he argued, would encourage Israel yet again to challenge
the credibility of the United Nations and its binding resolutions.
Moreover, he added, the company to carry out the drilling belongs to a
State that is a permanent member of the Council, and "therefore has a dual
responsibility to ensure that its companies comply with international law and
the relevant Security Council resolutions."
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