Envoy Urges End to Illegal Foreign Presence in Syria

Date: 27 January 2023 - 22:14

News ID: ۱۱۱۸۲۱

UNITED NATIONS -- Iran’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations has called for an end to the illegal presence of foreign forces in Syria, saying the occupation continues to violate the UN Charter and international law while creating fertile grounds for terrorism to flourish.
Amir Saeid Iravani made the remarks in a statement before the United Nations Security Council on “the situation in the Middle East: Syria” in New York on Thursday.
“Terrorism continues to pose a serious threat to Syria and the region; however, the presence of foreign forces in the north of Syria under the pretext of combating terrorism should not be used to violate and undermine Syria’s national sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” he said.
He urged “all uninvited foreign forces” in Syria to leave the country with no precondition or delay in a bid to create conducive grounds for ending the crisis there.
Pointing to the occupying regime of Israel’s continuous acts of aggression against Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, he emphasized that the Security Council must compel the regime to immediately end its “wrongful acts,” which are happening despite Damascus’ repeated requests from the world body to explicitly condemn such crimes.
“We strongly condemn the Israeli regime’s recent terrorist attacks on Damascus International Airport on January 2, which constituted a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and endangering regional and international peace and security,” the Iranian diplomat said.
In letters addressed to the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the president of the Security Council on January 2, Syria condemned in the strongest terms the latest missile attack by the occupying regime of Israel against the Arab country’s civilian infrastructure, which temporarily put the Damascus International Airport out of service.
The letters came on the same day that Israel launched the missile strike against the Damascus airport.
Iravani once again reiterated Iran’s steadfast position that the

“We stress the unequivocal undertaking of the Nuclear-Weapon States to accomplish the total elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear disarmament.”
Elsewhere, the Iranian envoy rejected accusations that representatives of the European Union and Germany had leveled against Iran in the conference on January 24 about alleged drone deliveries to Russia and Iran’s missile program.
Referring to the war in Ukraine, the envoy said “Iran’s position has been clear and consistent” since the start of the conflict.
“Iran supports any efforts to find a peaceful solution to this conflict,” he said, adding, “We categorically reject unsubstantiated and baseless claims that Iran has transferred unmanned aerial vehicles for use in the conflict in Ukraine.”
Bahraini also rejected allegations made by he Europeans about Iran’s missile program.
“The EU and German representative tried to give a self-serving narrative of the Security Council Resolution 2231 in order to falsely establish a link between their baseless allegations against Iran with Resolution 2231,” he said.
“The text and spirit of resolution 2231 have nothing to do with Iran’s defensive missile program, as our missiles are not designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons because we don’t need such missiles and because we don’t have nuclear weapons.”
Iran has said its missile program is solely for defensive purposes and is not up for negotiations, and has rejected allegations by the Western countries that the program violates Resolution 2231.
The resolution was adopted by the UN Security Council in July 2015 to endorse the Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which the United States unilaterally withdrew from three years later.