Saudi Arabia stresses the right of the Palestinian people to an independent State with Jerusalem as its capital in its word in the UN Security Council session held Monday evening, under the title "The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue".
"Saudi Arabia affirms that the Palestinian issue is its paramount concernand that any proposed solution discarding the right of the Palestinians toestablish their independent state within the borders of June 4, 1967 withJerusalem as its capital will not succeed." SaudiArabia's permanent representative to the U.N., Abdullah Al–Moalami, said.
At the outset of his speech, Al-Moalami congratulated the representative ofthe Federal Republic of Germany on the presidency of the Security Council forthis month. He said that the resolutions of the United Nations, especially theresolutions of the Security Council, constitute the basis of the law thatgoverns relations between the Member States to maintain the noble objectives ofthis Organization of maintaining the international peace and security, endingthe occupation, and granting peoples the right to self-determination.
The violation of the Religious Sanctities
He said thatIsrael has clearly failed to implement its pledges and commitments under theCharter of the United Nations in its continued flagrant violation of humanrights. He pointed out that the latest illegal practice of Israel was theimposition a law allowing the occupation authorities to seize the allowancesand funds of the families of Palestinian martyrs and captives, as well as itscontinued construction of settlements on the Palestinian land and the violationof the religious sanctities.
The Occupied Golan
Al-Moalami underlinedthat Saudi Arabia will remain committed to the international legal frameworksrepresented by the relevant Security Council Resolutions and the Arab PeaceInitiative. The Kingdom reaffirms the importance of protecting the Palestinianpeople, protecting occupied Jerusalem, preserving its Arab, Islamic, andChristian identity and its legal and historical status and that Israel shouldend its occupation of all Arab territories, including the Sheba'a farms andother occupied Lebanese territories.
Al-Moalami also highlighted that Saudi Arabia affirms its firm situation on the Syrian Arab Golan as an occupied territory in accordance with Security Council resolutions nos. 242 (1967) and 497 (1981) and rejects any decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights and that recognition does not change the legal status of the occupied Syrian Arab Golan.
Solutions to Syria crisis
He said that theKingdom supports the efforts of the Special Envoy for Syria to resolve theSyrian crisis and hopes that the Syrians will be able to reach the appropriatedrafting for the proposed constitutional committee, which is charged withdrafting a new Syrian constitution that guarantees equality for the Syrianpeople and fulfills their aspirations for freedom and dignity, drawing theattention to the need to put an end to the suffering of prisoners, abductees,and absentees and the importance of their release or to clarify the factssurrounding their lives, and that this must be humane concern, not subject tobargaining or bidding.
Iran BlatantExtensions and Interventions
"Irancontinues its provocative expansionist approach in the Middle East, beginningwith its support for the Lebanese Hezbollah's involvement in the fighting inSyria to its support for the Houthi militias in Yemen, which is still laggingbehind in the implementation of the Stockholm Conventions," he said.
He also added:"We commend the United States of America for its classification of the IranianRevolutionary Guards and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations, as well as theBritish decision to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. We call onthe Security Council to take the necessary steps to include these two entitiesas well as the Houthi militias on international terrorism lists. We also callupon the Security Council to be bold and courageous to name the partiesimpeding the peace process in Yemen, the first of which is Iran, whichcontinues to supply the Houthis with weapons in flagrant violation of SecurityCouncil resolutions nos. 2216 and 2140, and my Government stresses theimportance of reaching a comprehensive political solution in Yemen inaccordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular theresolution no. 2216, the GCC initiative, and the outcomes of Yemen's nationaldialogue, and the implementation of the Stockholm Convention as a first steptowards a comprehensive political solution."
At the end of his word, Al-Moalami pointed out that the peoples of the region have long suffered from repeated conflicts and wars imposed on them from abroad, especially the Israeli occupation in Palestine and the attempts of Iranian hegemony in the Arabian Gulf, stressing that the time has come to the region to get rid of occupation and hegemony and to achieve freedom and prosperity, and the Kingdom will always be the first to support the peoples and their choices and alleviate their suffering as it does now in Yemen, Sudan, Libya, and Syria.
