Under the current peace settlement in Syria, Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be forced to fall under pressure and return the Golan Heights, a strategic area that was captured from Syria in 1967.
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The current president of the 15-member council, Chinese ambassador Liu Jieyi, said that the council is “deeply concerned” about Netanyahu’s statement and emphasized that for the United Nations, the status of the plateau “remains unchanged”.
Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi, who holds this month’s council presidency said that Israel’s decision to impose its laws in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was nul and void and without any global legal effect.
However, the prospect of an ISIS affiliate possessing weapons on the Syrian-Israeli border is no doubt concerning to Israel’s defense establishment, which reportedly intends to prepare for the possibility that the group will shift its attention towards Israel.
Israel was incensed by the U.N.’s decision to focus on Netanyahu’s increasingly conservative rhetoric on the Golan issue, as Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon responded by questioning the council’s commitment to peace in the Middle East. He called it “an integral part of the state of Israel in the new era”. “Two, after 50 years, the time has come for the global community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain under Israel’s sovereignty permanently”.
Furthermore, the Golan Heights were designated to be part of the Jewish national home as was stipulated in the British Mandate for Palestine that was formalized in September 1922 by the Council of the League of Nations. “Hezbollah? The Iranian and Syrian forces who massacred hundreds of thousands of people?” “Whatever happens on the other side of the [Syrian] border, the border itself will not move”. “The time has come after 40 years for the worldwide community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain forever under Israeli sovereignty”. Israel’s annexation of the Golan has not won worldwide recognition. Syria unsuccessfully tried to retake the Golan Heights during the 1973 War.
The U.N. Security Council met April 26 and sharply rejected Israel’s claim, reminding the world of Israel’s military occupation of the Golan and illegal settlements there.
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The Security Council has yet to respond to the alarming report.
