Israel feared the fall of Assad not the rise of instability, Syrian envoy tells UN Security Council
NEW YORK CITY: Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Ibrahim Olabi, told the Security Council on Thursday that Israel’s true fear relating to Syria was never instability in the country, but the collapse of a regime that tortured and gassed its own people.
Arguing that when that collapse took place Israel lost any remaining justification for its continued military presence in southern Syria, he suggested the continuing occupation amounts to an attempt to seize land for political gain rather than to address any genuine security threat.
His comments came as the council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution renewing the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force, a peacekeeping mission established in 1974, after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, to monitor the ceasefire and demilitarized area of separation between Israeli and Syrian forces.
Olabi said residents of Qunaitra and surrounding communities in Syria near Israeli-held areas had been unable to celebrate the fall of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, 2024, the way the rest of the country had. He described foreign military incursions, interference in daily life, and abductions in areas into which Israeli forces later advanced. He said he continues to receive messages from affected families even while he is in New York.
