Hassan Rouhani vowed on Friday that Iran would challenge Trump’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which the Jewish state gained control over 52 years ago.
By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff
Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani said Friday that Iranians would “resist” the Trump administration’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory the Jewish state won in battle during the 1967 Six-Day War.
During that conflict, Israel staved off an onslaught of four Arab armies, defeating them all and gaining control of the Golan Heights to prevent Syria from continuing to use the strategically important territory to attack Israel.
Rouhani said cryptically that Iranians “should resist” U.S. recognition and “that way gain victory” over the U.S. and Israel. Among political Islamists such as Iran and its terror proxies, the term “resistance” is frequently a code-word for violence.
President Donald Trump’s formal recognition last week of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan sparked condemnation from Syria and several other states in the region, but Mideast experts such as Ahmed Abd Rabou predicted that leaders attending the Arab Summit this Sunday would pay no more than lip service to the situation.
“It will be just a very strong, theatrical, nice, maybe strong statement,” said Rabou, a visiting professor of international affairs at the University of Denver. “But I doubt that this will have a true political effect.”
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif claimed on Thursday the decision is a reminder to Arab and Muslim countries that U.S. and Israel “will steal your lands.”
The Iranian regime is sworn to Israel’s destruction, supporting Syria’s brutal dictator and Islamic terror groups like Hamas and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.