Trump’s Golan statement draws strong reprobation
24 March, 2019
From Syria to Turkey and beyond, U.S. President Donald Trump’s abrupt declaration that Washington will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights drew strong condemnation on Friday.
The Syrian government called it “irresponsible” and a threat to international peace and stability, while Iran’s foreign ministry said it plunges the region into a new crisis.
The Foreign Ministry in Damascus said Trump’s statement confirms “the blind bias of the United States to the Zionist entity,” referring to Israel, and added that it won’t change “the fact that the Golan was and will remain Arab and Syrian.”
The ministry also said Damascus is now more intent on liberating the Golan Heights, “using every possible means.”
Trump’s announcement the day before was a major shift in American policy and gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political boost a month before what is expected to be a close election.
The administration has been considering recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic highlands, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967, for some time and Netanyahu had pressed the matter with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this week.
Israel unilaterally annexed the Golan Heights in 1981. The U.N. Security Council resolution 497, issued after the annexation, refers to Israel as “the occupying power” and says Israel’s attempt to “impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect.”
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said the United Nations had no comment on Trump’s tweet.
“But if you’re asking what the U.N. policy on the Golan Heights is, it’s very clear,” he said. “It’s the policy reflected in the resolutions of the Security Council and the relevant resolutions as well of the General Assembly.”
Damascus also said Trump’s statement “clearly shows the U.S. disdain to the international legitimacy and violates its resolutions, especially Security Council resolution 497” while also threatening “international peace and stability.”
Syria’s Foreign Ministry later announced that a letter was sent to the presidents of the U.N. Security Council and United Nations over Trump’s “irresponsible and dangerous statements over the Golan.”