ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s United Nations envoy Usman Jadoon this week criticized Israel for its incursions into Syria, describing it as a flagrant violation of the Arab nation’s territorial sovereignty and calling on Israel to vacate all occupied territories there.

Israeli ​troops entered a UN-patrolled buffer zone in Syria after the collapse of former Syrian president Basha Assad’s government in December 2024, a move Israel described as temporary and necessary to secure its border during the political transition.

Israel has since carried out hundreds of strikes on Syrian military infrastructure and seized new positions ​deeper into Syria. The Syrian government and the UN have said the deployment violates Syrian sovereignty and a 1974 ​disengagement agreement that followed the 1973 Middle East war.

“Israel’s continued military activities and presence on Syrian territory constitute violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Usman Jadoon, Pakistan’s deputy permanent representative at the UN, said.

“Syria’s sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity must be fully respected, along with strict observance of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement and relevant Security Council resolutions.”

Jadoon was speaking at a UN Security Council briefing called to address the political and humanitarian situation in Syria. The Pakistani envoy condemned Israel’s incursions into Syrian territory, including by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this month.

On Sept. 9, Netanyahu visited Israeli military positions on Mount Hermon inside Syrian territory. He declared there that Israel now held unprecedented control stretching from the summit of the mountain south to the Yarmouk River and west to the Mediterranean.

“Israel must vacate Syrian Golan and other occupied territory in Syria,” Jadoon said.

Pakistan has consistently criticized Israel for its military operations in Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, Syria and other countries. Islamabad has called on the international community to hold Israel accountable for war crimes that it says Israel committed in Gaza and the West Bank since decades.

Pakistan does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and has thrown its weight behind an independent Palestinian state, based on the pre-1967 borders with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital.