SYRIA UPDATE
Foreign Ministry: Syria supports its citizens in the occupied Golan in resisting Israeli occupation and rejecting “local councils elections”
In two identical letters directed to the UN Secretary General and UNSC President on the so-called “local council elections” the Israeli authorities want to hold in the occupied Syrian Golan, the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said that the occupation authorities are determined to hold elections of the so-called “local councils” in the villages of Majdal Shams, Boqatha, Masa’ada, and Ain Qenia in the occupied Syria Golan, which contradicts UN resolutions and the Geneva agreements on territories under control of occupation, selecting 30/10/2018 as date for these elections.
“Throughout the past few weeks, the Syrian citizens have organized protests in rejection of these elections. They burned the election cards and they condemned the attempts of the Israeli occupation’s forces to impose the Israeli laws on them by force,” it added. “As an example of the Israeli barbarism, the occupation authorities mobilized soldiers to suppress protest marches, and fired toxic gases in the town of Majdal Shams where there were cases of suffocation among children, the elderly, and women during their confrontation of the Israeli occupation forces,” the Ministry continued to say.
It also urged the UNSC to force Israel to stop all forms of support to the terrorist organizations in Syria.
https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=150067
Israeli occupation attacks with live rounds and gas grenades participants in a sit-in Majdal Shams
Forces of the Israeli occupation attacked with live rounds and gas grenades participants in a sit-in held on Tuesday in Majdal Shams town in the occupied Syrian Golan in rejection of the so-called “local councils elections.” In a statement issued on Monday, Syrians in the occupied village of Baqaatha affirmed that they are against the Zionist measures which aim at Judaizing the occupied Golan and obliterating its Arab identity. They also affirmed their adherence their homeland and to their Syrian Arab identity.
https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=150005
Erdogan: Turkey Finished Preparations For ‘Counter-Terrorism’ Op East Of Euphrates River In Syria
Ankara considers the YPG and other Kurdish armed groups, which are the core of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as terrorists because of their links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The PKK is a separatist militant group, which has a long history of rebellion against the Turkish state. In fact, it seeks to establish an independent Kurdish state within Turkish territory and, if it’s possible, to include northern Syria and northern Iraq in it.
The US support, including miltiary supplies, to the SDF and thus the YPG and the PKK is the source of the constant tensions between Washington and Ankara. The sides even reached a deal on the town of Manbij in the framework of which the YPG has to withdraw from the town and the local authorities has to be returned to the Manbij citizens [currently the town is controlled by the YPG-affilated body]. However, the US has sabotaged its side of the deal and has not allowed Turkish forces to enter the vicinity.
https://southfront.org/erdogan-turkey-finished-preparations-for-counter-terrorism-op-east-of-euphrates-river-in-syria/
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