Crisis in Palestine's Gaza is spilling into Syria, says UN envoy

The Israel-Palestine crisis is spilling into Syria, fuelled by growing instability, violence and a lack of progress toward a political solution to its 12-year conflict, the United Nations special envoy for the country has said.

Geir Pedersen told the Security Council that, on top of violence from the Syrian conflict, the Syrian people now face "a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation" following Hamas's October 7 attacks on Israel and the ongoing retaliatory military action.

"Spillover into Syria is not just a risk; it has already begun," the UN envoy for Syria said.

Pedersen pointed to air strikes attributed to Israel hitting Syria's airports in Aleppo and Damascus several times, and retaliation by the United States against what it said were multiple attacks on its forces "by groups that it claims are backed by Iran, including on Syrian territory."

With the region "at its most dangerous and tense," he said, "fuel is being added to a tinderbox that was already beginning to ignite" in Syria, which was seeing a surge in violence even before October 7.

Pedersen said the number of Syrians killed, injured and displaced is at its highest since 2020, citing a significant intensification of attacks in Syrian regime-controlled areas, including an unclaimed attack on a graduation ceremony at a military academy in Homs.

US, Russia trade barbs

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused "terrorist groups," some backed by Syria and Iran, of threatening to expand the Gaza crisis "by using Syrian territory to plot and launch attacks against Israel."

She also accused Syria of allowing Iran and "terrorist groups" to use its international airports for military purposes.

"The United States has warned all actors not to take advantage of the situation in Gaza to widen or deepen the conflict," Thomas-Greenfield said.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia of Russia, Syria's closest ally, accused Israeli forces of striking sites in Syria, including civilian airports, and called US attacks in the country "illegitimate actions" and "a gross violation of Syria's sovereignty."

He also claimed US economic interests and involvement "in contraband with Syrian grain and oil" have prevailed over political interests.

Nebenzia said there is a sharp increase in tensions around the Israel-Palestine conflict and attacks like the ones by the US might provoke spillover to the entire region.

Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Iravani accused Washington of attempting "to shift the blame from the culprit to the victim."

Iravani told the council the United States' "unwavering support" for Israel "has rendered it part of the problem."

He said the US and some Western countries were attempting to give Israel an unjust right to self-defence while ignoring the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and equating the Palestinian resistance with terrorism.

"Iran's primary objective is to avoid any escalation in the region," the ambassador stressed, which is why it has endorsed international calls for an immediate ceasefire and humanitarian aid for people in Gaza.