On instructions from my Government, I draw your attention to the following:

On the morning of Monday, 9 February 2018, as part of its policy of practicing State terrorism and providing ongoing support to armed terrorist groups, and in deliberate violation of Security Council resolution 350 (1974) concerning the disengagement of forces, as well as of Security Council counter-terrorism resolutions and counter-terrorism instruments, Israeli occupation forces once again attacked the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. Israeli F-15 aircraft fired missiles from Lebanese airspace at T-4 airbase in Homs governorate. Syrian air defences brought down some of those missiles. The attack resulted in deaths and injuries to a number of Syrian civilians.

This Israeli attack comes as an indirect response to the success of the Syrian Arab Army in driving armed terrorist groups from suburbs of the city of Damascus, the surrounding countryside and other parts of Syria. Those groups have been deliberately murdering Syrian citizens and abducting and holding them for use as human shields. In Damascus alone, they have rained down more than 3,000 missiles in just three months, killing 155 civilians and injuring 865, most of them women and children.

This dangerous and hostile behaviour on the part of Israel would not be continuing were it not for the limitless and ongoing support provided to Israel by the United States administration. The immunity from accountability granted to Israel allows it to continue to practice State terrorism and to threaten peace and security in the region and the world. This attack would not have occurred without a green light from the United States on the pretext of fabrications and spectacles being staged by its clients that are no longer fooling anybody.

The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates its warning to Israel about the dangerous consequences of its attacks against the Syrian Arab Republic, its continued support for armed terrorist groups and its ongoing occupation of Arab lands, including the occupied Syrian Golan, and holds Israel fully responsible for those actions. The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates that the repeated Israeli attacks against it have not and will not succeed in protecting the terrorist organizations that are Israel’s partners and proxies. Neither will those attacks divert the Syrian Arab Army from continuing to make gains in combating terrorism.

The Syrian Arab Republic also reiterates that it will not hesitate to exercise its right to defend its territory, people and sovereignty by all the means sanctioned by the Charter of the United Nations, international law and international humanitarian law.

The Syrian Arab Republic once again calls on the Security Council to fulfil its responsibility for maintaining international peace and security and to condemn these flagrant Israeli attacks, hold Israel accountable, and take resolute and immediate action to prevent the recurrence of such attacks.

I should be grateful if the present letter could be issued as a document of the Security Council.

Bashar Ja’afari