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The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a resolution declaring Israel’s continued occupation and de facto annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights “illegal” and demanding its withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 line.
The draft resolution, authored by Egypt, passed with 123 votes in favor, seven against, and 41 abstentions.
The resolution reaffirms that Israel’s 1981 decision to impose its “laws, jurisdiction, and administration” on the occupied Syrian Golan is “null and void and has no validity whatsoever.”
It “demands once more that Israel withdraw from all the occupied Syrian Golan to the line of June 4, 1967” in accordance with relevant Security Council resolutions. It also asserts that the continued occupation and de facto annexation represent “a stumbling block in the way of achieving a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in the region.”
Addressing the General Assembly before the vote, Syria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ibrahim Olabi, said the occupied Syrian Golan is “Syrian land” and that Damascus has the full right to reclaim it from Israel.
“Our country has every right to regain this land fully, and until the June 4, 1967 lines. This is a firm law that cannot be subject to compromise or pressure and has no statute of limitations. It is guaranteed by international law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” Olabi said.
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He added that Syria “will continue to exercise its legitimate right to defend its land and its people using all means necessary, as guaranteed by international law.”
“My country calls for holding accountable the Israeli occupation authorities for all the crimes, and we call for working to guarantee that they do not go with impunity,” he said, urging the U.N. to take “immediate measures” to enforce its resolutions.
Following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, violating the 1974 Disengagement Agreement with Syria.
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