UNSC rejects Israel's claim over Syria's Golan Heights
Russia says has enough forces in Syria to safe guard ceasefire
The UN Security Council has rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that the annexed Golan Heights in Syria would "for ever" remain under Israeli control.
The 15-member council agreed on Tuesday that the status of the Golan, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967, "remains unchanged", Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi, who holds this month's council presidency said.
Liu recalled a 1981 resolution which states that Israel's "decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights was nul and void and without any international legal effect."
Liu said that the Council members "expressed deep concern" over Netanyahu's remarks from earlier this month that "the Golan Heights will remain in the hands of Israel for ever."
Israel's UN Ambassador Danny Danon issued a statement rejecting the council complaint.
"It's unfortunate that interested parties are attempting to use the council for unfair criticism of Israel," he said.
Netanyahu's April 17 declaration came on the occasion of the first Israeli cabinet session on the Golan since the area was seized from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed in 1981.
Israel's annexation of the Golan has never been recognised by the international community.
Past US-backed Israeli-Syrian peace efforts were predicated on a return of the Golan, where some 23,000 Israelis now live alongside roughly the same number of Druse Arabs loyal to Damascus. Liu said the council supported a negotiated arrangement to settle the issue of the Golan.
Meanwhile, a senior Russian Defence Ministry official said his country holds enough forces at its Hmeymim air base in Syria to safeguard the ceasefire and assist Syrian government forces in fighting rebels from Islamic State and the Nusra .
The comment came as the United Nations yesterday said no date had been set for the next round of Syria peace talks, contradicting a report quoting Russia's deputy foreign minister as saying talks would resume in Geneva on May 10.
UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura is struggling to keep the peace process alive after the main opposition High Negotiations Committee (HNC) left formal talks last week.
Asked yesterday whether a new date had been set, the HNC said it was up to the United Nations to say when peace talks would resume but that it would not take part until its demands were met.
De Mistura is talking about May 14-15 for starting the next round, a Western diplomat said.