In letter to UN, Syria blames Israel for faking attack to 'justify own aggression'
The Syrian Foreign Ministry sent a letter to the UN, urging that the world body step in and blaming Israel for orchestarting attacks and coordinating with terrorist organizations.
By YASSER OKBI/ MAARIV HASHAVUA, JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: OCTOBER 21, 2017 19:22IDF soldiers near the border with Syria in the Golan Heights (photo credit: REUTERS)
The Syrian Foreign Affairs Ministry sent two letters to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday accusing Israel of faking an attack on its own territory following the IDF's aerial attack on Syrian military positions in Quneitra on Saturday morning.The Israeli military struck the Syrian targets in retaliation after five projectiles were launched at Israel from Syria, with three landing in an open area on the Golan Heights."Israel asked terrorists to launch projectiles at its own territory, so it could justify its own attack," the letters to Guterres reportedly charged."This new Israeli aggression against the outskirts of Quneitra is a new chapter in the connection between the Israeli occupation and the armed terrorist organizations, and a desperate attempt to support those organizations," the letter read in a blatant accusation but did not specify which terror groups Israel is allegedly collaborating with.The letter continued to allege that "Syria repeatedly warns of the grave repercussions to the repeated aggressive actions that cannot be explained as anything but support of terror and criminal terror organizations, against Security Council resolutions."The Syrian Foreign Ministry urged the UN to step up its involvement and to actively condemn Israel for its so-called 'manipulations,' writing to Guterres that "Syria is surprised by the lack of reaction from the Security Council [that isn't calling on Israel] to stop its aggression and isn't condemning it, seeing as it hurts basic UN principles as well as international law."The Syrian army made similar accusations earlier on Saturday, announcing that "the Israeli enemy attacked one of the posts on the outskirts of Quneitra, after asking terrorists to send projectiles to an empty area within the occupied land."Syrian news agency SANA quoted the statement from the Syrian army, which went on to add that "the Israeli enemy attacked this morning one of our posts and caused damages. This aggression comes as part of the coordination between the Israeli enemy and terror organization in Syria, which it supports [as evidenced by] dozens of times Syrian army units caught Israeli weapons and ammunition inside the lairs of the terror organizations, the last of them being in the city of Mayadin on the outskirts of Deir ez-Zor last week."The Syrian army's general command then reissued its recurring threats of "grave repercussions to this aggression of the Israeli occupation, which bears full responsibility for any result, regardless of its weak excuses that have been revealed to everyone."Israel has yet to have officially responded to this latest accusation, but a statement the IDF released shortly after the exchange on Saturday morning stressed that "the Syrian regime is responsible for all that is happening on its territory" and that "the IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm the sovereignty of the State of Israel and its citizens."
