China urges Israel to stop bombing Syria to avoid escalation of conflict in Gaza

03/06/2024 / By Arsenio Toledo

Charge d’affaires of the Chinese Permanent Mission to the United Nations Dai Bing has raised concerns that Israel’s unrelenting military actions against Palestinians in Gaza could spill over into Syria.

In an address to a briefing with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the political and humanitarian situation in Syria on Tuesday, Feb. 27, Dai urged Israel against continuing its air strikes on targets within Syria, warning that these attacks could lead to a broader war. (Related: China backs Palestinians’ right to use armed force against Israel.)

“Extraterritorial powers should play a constructive role in cooling down the situation and preventing the conflict from spreading and expanding,” said Dai, referring to Israel’s closest ally, the United States.

“Israel has continued to launch air strikes on various locations in Syria through the Golan Heights it occupies,” added Dai. “China calls on all parties to exercise restraint and avoid escalating tensions.”

The disputed Golan Heights territory was first occupied by Israel in the aftermath of the Six-Day War in 1967. Now, almost every nation in the UN recognizes the Golan Heights as an occupied territory of Syria. Only the United States recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the region.

The latest deadly attack by Israel targeted the western Damascene neighborhood of Kfar Sousseh, hitting a residential building, killing two civilians and causing significant material damage.

A month before the latest attack, Israeli airstrikes killed five senior members of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and several Syrian security personnel in Damascus.

China urges international community to provide more humanitarian aid to embattled Syrians

In his address to the UNSC, Dai also urged the international community to continue and increase the flow of humanitarian aid to innocent people in Syria and called for more progress on a stalled cross-border aid mechanism. This mechanism previously allowed the delivery of humanitarian assistance into parts of Syria not controlled by Damascus without requiring the consent of the government of President Bashar Al-Assad.

So far, Assad’s de jure internationally recognized government has approved a special UN organization to continue providing humanitarian assistance to the war-torn parts of his nation.

Dai has also expressed Beijing’s staunch opposition to the Western world’s “unilateral sanctions” and “plundering resources” of Syria, and supported Damascus’ efforts to “combat terrorism and maintain security and stability.”

This comes as Syria’s economic crisis continues to worsen. Damascus has blamed most of the economic collapse on U.S.-led sanctions. These sanctions successfully contracted Syria’s GDP to just $12.4 billion in 2022, equal to 4.4 percent of its GDP 12 years ago in 2010, the year before the Syrian Civil War started. The value of the Syrian pound also hit a record low against the U.S. dollar this year.

China’s increasing support for Syria is seen as a new development in relations between Beijing and Damascus. Previously, the Chinese Communist Party had expressed support for Assad’s government throughout the civil war but denied sending direct military aid in the same way Russia and Iran have done.

Last September, Assad visited Beijing and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The six-day state visit was Assad’s longest foreign trip since the civil war began.

Watch this video from “Southfront Press” discussing Israel’s escalation of the conflict with its new air strikes against Syria.

This video is from the channel The Prisoner on Brighteon.com.