Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli plan to double annexed Golan population

An Israeli flag flies on a roof in the town of Majdal Shams, near the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, on December 15, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 16 December 2024
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Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli plan to double annexed Golan population

  • Israel’s government ‘unanimously approved’ the $11 million ‘plan for the demographic development of the Golan’
  • The Kingdom says the strategic plateau is occupied Syrian Arab land, calls for respecting Syria’s territorial integrity

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned and denounced the Israeli government’s approval of a plan to double the population of the occupied and annexed Golan Heights.

Israel’s government “unanimously approved” the $11 million “plan for the demographic development of the Golan... in light of the war and the new front in Syria and the desire to double the population,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

“The Kingdom renews its call to the international community to condemn these Israeli violations, stressing the need to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement added that the strategic plateau is occupied Syrian Arab land and condemned Israel’s “continued sabotage of Syria’s chances of restoring its security and stability.”

Israel has occupied most of the Golan Heights since 1967 and annexed that area in 1981 in a move recognized only by the United States.


UN urges Middle East warring parties to ‘give peace a chance’

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UN urges Middle East warring parties to ‘give peace a chance’

  • The United Nations rights chief called on Friday for cool heads to prevail in the Middle East and urged the warring sides to pull back and give peace a chance
GENEVA: The United Nations rights chief called on Friday for cool heads to prevail in the Middle East and urged the warring sides to pull back and give peace a chance.
“The world urgently needs to see steps to contain and extinguish this blaze — but instead we are only seeing more inflammatory, bellicose rhetoric, more bombings, more destruction, killings and escalation, that fuels it further,” Volker Turk told reporters.
“I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate, to give peace a chance. And on other states to call clearly on those involved to pull back. Cool heads must prevail if we are to prevent further terror and devastation for civilians.”