UN Council calls for 'inclusive and Syrian-led' political process

Ahram Online , Wednesday 18 Dec 2024

The UN Security Council called for an "inclusive and Syrian-led" political process to be implemented after Bashar al-Assad's ouster, saying the country's people must be allowed to determine their future.

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Members of the United Nations Security Council listen as Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Representative of the United States to the UN and President of the UN Security Council speaks during a meeting on the situation in the Middle East at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. AFP

 

"This political process should meet the legitimate aspirations of all Syrians, protect all of them and enable them to peacefully, independently and democratically determine their own futures," the Council said in a press statement.

The Council also called on Syria and its neighbors to refrain from any actions that could undermine regional security.

The Security Council reiterated support for the UN peacekeeping force known as UNDOF monitoring the Israel-Syria border following the 1973 Mideast war. It stressed the obligation of all parties to the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that established a demilitarized buffer zone between the countries to abide by its terms and reduce tensions.

Geir Pedersen, the UN's special envoy for Syria, also called at the Security Council for Israel to "cease all settlement activity in the occupied Syrian Golan" and said an end to sanctions would be key to assisting the country, AFP reported.

Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military assets Assad ouster.

It has also sent troops into the UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights and occupied further Syrian territories.

On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli forces will occupy the buffer zone inside Syria, and specifically on the summit of Jabal Al-Shaikh, the highest peak in the area — which is located on Syria’s side of the border. 

Council members also "reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Syria and called on all States to respect these principles."

The statement came shortly after the UN's envoy to Syria warned that the conflict has not ended even after the departure of Assad, as he highlighted clashes between Turkish-backed and Kurdish groups in the north.

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