Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad reiterated his country’s firm right to recover the occupied Golan Heights, noting that the presence of the peacekeeping forces is not a substitute for ending the occupation.
Mikdad stressed the importance of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) operating in the Golan Heights under the mandate stipulated per the relevant Security Council resolution, according to State-owned Syrian News Agency (SANA).
Mikdad met with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and UN Assistant Secretary-General for the Middle East, Asia, and the Pacific, Mohamed Khaled el-Khiari.
During the meeting, the minister reiterated the Syrian government's support to UNDOF to fully implement the mandate entrusted to it, specifically monitoring the disengagement and detection of Israeli violations of the Separation of Forces Agreement represented by its reaccuring attacks on Syrian sovereignty.
He also condemned recent statements by the US administration, which ignored the United Nations resolutions recognizing the Golan Heights as an occupied Syrian Arab land.