{"id":37849,"date":"2019-03-28T20:23:18","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T20:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37849"},"modified":"2019-03-28T20:23:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T20:23:18","slug":"amnesty-condemns-syria-regime-strikes-on-idlib-school-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=37849","title":{"rendered":"Amnesty condemns Syria regime strikes on Idlib school, hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div readability=\"48\">\n<p>\nUNITED NATIONS: The United States came under sharp criticism from the 14 other Security Council nations Wednesday for its decision to recognize Israel\u2019s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in violation of council resolutions.<br \/>Speaker after speaker at the open meeting supported Syria\u2019s sovereignty over the strategic plateau and opposed Israel\u2019s annexation of the Golan Heights and President Donald Trump\u2019s proclamation earlier this week.<br \/>As South Africa\u2019s UN Ambassador Jerry Matjila said, \u201cthis unilateral action does nothing to assist in finding a long-term peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East.\u201d<br \/>He and others pointed to resolutions calling for Israel to end its occupation of the Golan Heights, including a December 1981 Security Council resolution that called Israel\u2019s annexation of the strategic area \u201cnull and void and without international legal effect.\u201d<br \/>Syria\u2019s closest ally Russia urged governments to continue to view the Golan Heights as Israeli-occupied territory.<br \/>\u201cIf anybody feels any temptation to follow this poor example, we would urge them to refrain from this aggressive revision of international law,\u201d Russia\u2019s deputy ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said.<br \/>While Syria got support on its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen and Britain\u2019s Ambassador Karen Pierce also used the meeting to criticize President Bashar Assad\u2019s government for bombing civilians, using chemical weapons and violating human rights violations during the ongoing eight-year civil war.<br \/>Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. A 1974 cease-fire agreement that officially ended the 1973 Mideast war led to the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force known as UNDOF on the Golan Heights.<br \/>Trump\u2019s proclamation that the Golan Heights are part of Israel raised questions about the future of UNDOF after its mandate expires on June 30.<br \/>US political coordinator Rodney Hunter told the council UNDOF has \u201ca vital role to play in preserving stability between Israel and Syria,\u201d an assurance that the Trump administration\u2019s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau won\u2019t affect its operation.<br \/>He said the force\u2019s mandate to ensure that the area of separation between Syria and Israel \u201cis a buffer zone free from any military presence or activities\u201d is of \u201ccritical strategic and security importance\u201d to Israel, and \u201ccan contribute to the stability of the entire Middle East.\u201d<br \/>Hunter said US recognition that the Golan Heights are part of Israel doesn\u2019t affect the 1974 cease-fire agreement, \u201cnor do we believe that it undermines UNDOF\u2019s mandate in any way.\u201d<br \/>He strongly criticized \u201cthe daily presence of the Syrian armed forces\u201d in the area of separation, where UNDOF is the only military force allowed, calling their presence a violation of the 1974 cease-fire agreement.<br \/>The United States calls on Russia to use its influence with President Bashar Assad \u201cto compel the Syrian forces to uphold their commitment\u201d to the cease-fire agreement \u201cand immediately withdraw from the area of separation,\u201d Hunter said.<br \/>UN peacekeeping chief Jean Pierre Lacroix told the council there is \u201ca continued significant threat\u201d to UNDOF personnel from explosive remnants of war, \u201cand from the possible presence of sleeper cells of armed groups including (UN) listed terrorist groups.\u201d<br \/>Undersecretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo expressed hope that \u201cthe recent developments will not be used as an excuse by anyone to pursue actions that could undermine the relative stability of the situation on Golan and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UNITED NATIONS: The United States came under sharp criticism from the 14 other Security Council nations Wednesday for its decision to recognize Israel\u2019s sovereignty over the Golan Heights in violation of council resolutions.Speaker after speaker at the open meeting supported Syria\u2019s sovereignty over the strategic plateau and opposed Israel\u2019s annexation of the Golan Heights and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":37850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}