By Xinhua
United Nations : The international community, including the UN Security Council, should condemn a recent Israeli “act of aggression” against Syria, Syria’s foreign minister said Monday.
“The latest act of Israeli aggression against Syria on September 6, 2007 is a proof of Israel’s desire to escalate tension,” Walid Al-Moualem told the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level debate.
“We reiterate that the failure of the international community, including the Security Council, to condemn this act of aggression would encourage Israel to persist in this hostile pursuit, and lead to an exacerbation of tensions in the region,” he said.
“Some sources in the United States have spread rumors and fabricated news in order to justify this act of aggression,” Moualem said. “By distorting the facts they have become Israel’s accomplices.”
Moualem was referring to the allegations by some U.S. officials that the Israeli raid was meant to disrupt Syria’s suspicious operations.
In a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council, Syria complained on Sept. 11 that Israeli aircraft had entered its airspace and dropped “some munitions without managing to cause any human casualties or material damage.”
Regarding the situation in Iraq, he said the current situation in Iraq presages great dangers for Iraq and the region, and addressing this situation requires effective cooperation among all parties inside Iraq, in the region and the world at large.
The absence of a genuine political vision for a solution and the exclusive reliance on the military solution further aggravates the situation, he said.
He pointed out that a solution must begin with national reconciliation based on the principle of respect for the will of all Iraqis to determine their political future or lay the basis for the new Iraq that is built on equal citizenship.
Moualem also stressed the need for “the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Iraq, subject to the agreement of the Iraqi government, because this measure will contribute to curbing the violence.”
He condemned all terrorist acts committed in Iraq which claim the lives of innocent civilians.
“Random allegations that combatants are infiltrating into Iraq through the Syrian-Iraqi border cannot be further from the truth,” he said. “They fail to acknowledge the strict measures that Syria has put in place to control these borders.”
He said the purpose of these allegations “is assigning responsibility for the failure of the occupying power to achieve security and stability in Iraq to others.”
With 1.6 million Iraqi refugees in Syria today, Moualem said the country is “bearing enormous financial burdens to satisfy their economic needs and provide them with services.”
The international community, he added, had “failed to discharge its responsibility toward the Iraqi refugees.”