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occupied Syrian Golan up to the line of June 4th, 1967, and emphasizes its rejection of all measures taken by Israel, the occupying Power, to change its natural, demographic and geographic features in a clear violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular resolution 497 (1981). Syria reconfirms its support for the legitimate and inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, in particular their right of return and self-determination, and to establish their independent state on their land, with Jerusalem as its capital. Mr. President, After Syria's accession to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, my country renews its call for international community to work on establishing a zone free of all weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East. In this regard, we would like to remind the international community of the Syrian initiative at the end of its non-permanent membership in the Security Council in 2003, and calls on the Security Council to adopt it. Syria stresses that establishing a free zone of from weapons of mass destruction in the region is unachievable without the accession of Israel, the only nuclear power in the region, to all treaties banning such weapons, and to put its nuclear facilities under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). At the same time, we emphasize on the right of all countries to acquire and develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Syria condemns the continued blocking by the United States and Israel of holding the International Conference on the Establishment of a Zone Free of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East, which was scheduled to take place in 2012. Mr. President, My country calls on the United States and European Union countries, and others, to refrain from adopting immoral, unilateral economic measures that contradict the rules of international law and the principles of free trade. Accordingly, we call for the lifting of the blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba for decades. We also renew our call to lift and stop all unilateral coercive measures imposed on Syria and the peoples of other countries, such as Venezuela, Belarus, Iran and the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea