Syria on Monday hit back at the United Nations over the fate of Palestinian refugees after UN chief Ban Ki-moon voiced “grave concern” following a deadly air strike on Yarmuk camp in southern Damascus. “The United Nations and international community are responsible for the frustrations of the Palestinians because they have not implemented UN resolutions related to their legitimate rights,” Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said. “Syria offered something to our Palestinian brothers decades ago that no other Arab host country has offered,” he told Ban in a telephone call, quoted by state news agency SANA. The foreign minister was referring to the granting of equal social rights and to living conditions in Syria’s Palestinian refugee camps, long considered the best in the region. Sunday’s air strike on Yarmuk carried out by the Syrian military was the first against the country’s Palestinian refugee camps, whose residents are divided over the 21-month conflict between rebels and regime forces.
