Syrian foreign minister raises new flag at UN, calls for Israeli withdrawal
In speech to Security Council, Asaad al-Shaibani urges world body to pressure Israel to leave buffer zone on border, end strikes; insists Syria does not pose threat to neighbors
UNITED NATIONS — Syria’s foreign minister on Friday raised his country’s new flag at UN headquarters in New York, hailing the move as a “proclamation of a new existence” after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Asaad al-Shaibani raised the three-starred flag, officially adopted after Assad’s December ouster, and later spoke to the Security Council, where he urged a lifting of international sanctions and for Israel to be pressured to leave Syrian territory.
“This flag is not a mere symbol, but rather a proclamation of a new existence,” he said in his first United Nations speech.
Since Assad’s fall to Islamist-led forces, Israel has deployed troops in a UN-controlled buffer zone that has separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights since 1974.
“We would like to ask the Council to put pressure on Israel to withdraw from Syria,” al-Shaibani said in his first UN speech.
Israel has also launched airstrikes in Syria, which al-Shaibani slammed Friday as “not only a flagrant violation of international law and Syrian sovereignty, but also a direct threat to regional stability.”
“We have repeatedly announced our commitment that Syria will not constitute any threat to any of the neighboring countries or any country around the world, including to Israel,” he said.
He also called for the lifting of all sanctions imposed under the previous government.
Economic sanctions have hit the country hard, with more than 90 percent of Syrians living below the poverty line, according to the UN.
Al-Shaibani was backed by the UN’s special envoy to Syria, Geir Pedersen, who warned that Israel’s “violations of Syria’s territorial integrity are undermining the transition.”
He said Israel’s “highly confrontational” approach was “not warranted” given the space for diplomacy.
A day after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel sent its troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights, where it now maintains a military presence. The IDF has described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed in the area “indefinitely.”
Israel has also carried out a series of strikes aimed at destroying the previous regime’s military arsenal and chemical weapons sites so they don’t fall into the hands of the new regime.
Israel has repeatedly declared its mistrust of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Islamist faction that toppled Assad and emerged from a group that was affiliated with al-Qaeda until it cut ties in 2016. Israel has also expressed its intention to prevent Syria from falling into the hands of any hostile regime.
Pedersen also called for sanctions to be eased.
Some European and other Western states have eased certain sanctions on Syria, while others, including the United States, have said they would wait to see how the new authorities exercise their power, opting instead for targeted and temporary exemptions.
Shaibani’s visit to the UN comes after Syria’s central bank governor and finance minister this week attended spring meetings at the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, for the first time in more than 20 years.
Pedersen said the country’s transition from the Assad years was at a “truly critical juncture.”
Much has been achieved, but “the situation is extremely fragile,” he warned, calling for more political inclusion and economic action.
Pedersen, who was in Damascus two weeks ago, stressed the “urgent challenge” facing the Alawite community.
In early March, the minority — associated with Assad — were targeted by massacres, particularly on the coast, which killed more than 1,700 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.