Kuwait backing for Syria sovereignty

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NEW YORK, Oct 23, (Agencies): Kuwait has reiterated full support for the Palestinian and Syrian peoples in gaining their legitimate rights, guaranteed under international legitimacy resolutions, as well as their sovereignty, and natural resources.

Israel has imposed arbitrary constraints and measures, on administrative and security levels, upon the Palestinian people, depriving them from the freedom of movement and ignoring all international laws and norms, including UNSC Resolution 2334 (2016), noted Kuwaiti diplomatic attache Luluwa Al-Douseri.

She made the remarks at the UN General Assembly’s Second Committee on the sidelines of discussing report on the Permanent Sovereignty of the Palestinian People in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights over their natural resources.

The “unbiased” report addresses reality of Israel’s blatant violations and continued sectarian actions and policies in the occupied Palestinian territories that violate international human right laws, she said. Israeli actions such as depleting natural resources, constructing settlements, and demolishing the infrastructure in the occupied lands hinder all chances of achieving economic and social development in the Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan, said Al- Douseri.

The UNSC Resolution 2334 (2016) demands Israel to halt all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and fulfill its obligations as an occupying power under the Fourth Geneva Convention, she noted.

Moreover, the UNSC Resolution 497 (1981) declared that the Israeli Golan Heights Law, which effectively annexed the Syrian Golan Heights, is null and void and without international legal effect, and further calls on Israel to rescind its action, said Al-Douseri.

Meanwhile, Russian military police began patrols on part of the Syrian border Wednesday, quickly moving to implement an accord with Turkey that divvies up control of northeastern Syria. The Kremlin told Kurdish fighters to pull back from the entire frontier or else face being “steamrolled” by Turkish forces.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed those warnings, saying his military would resume its offensive against Kurdish fighters if the new arrangements are not carried out. Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached an agreement Tuesday that would transform the map of northeast Syria, installing their forces along the border and filling the void left by the abrupt withdrawal of American troops.

The Kurdish fighters, who once relied on the US forces as protection from Turkey, were given a deadline of next Tuesday evening to pull back from border areas they have not already left.

The clumsy reversal underscored the blow to US influence on the ground in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s order for US troops to leave Syria. Those forces were allied to the Kurdish-led fighters for five years in the long and bloody campaign that brought down the Islamic State group in Syria. Now a significant swath of the territory they captured is being handed over to US rivals, and the Kurds have been stung at being abandoned by their allies to face the Turkish invasion launched on Oct 9.

The Kremlin pointedly referred to that abandonment as it told the Kurds to abide by the Russian-Turkish accord. “The United States was the closest ally of the Kurds during the last few years, and in the end the US ditched the Kurds and effectively betrayed them,” leaving them to fight the Turks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Russian newswires.

“It’s quite obvious that if the Kurdish units don’t withdraw with their weapons then Syrian border guards and Russian military police will have to step back. And the remaining Kurdish units will be steamrolled by the Turkish army,” he said.

The Kurds have enjoyed self-rule in the northeast ever since Syria’s central government had to pull its forces out of the area seven years ago to battle rebels elsewhere at the height of the country’s civil war. With the subsequent alliance with the US, the Kurdish fighters had hoped to give their autonomy ambitions further weight.

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