Trump support for Israeli control of Golan draws swift condemnation

Syria’s foreign ministry said Damascus is now more intent on liberating the Golan, “using every possible means.”

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

U.S. President Donald Trump’s declaration on Thursday that Washington will recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights drew strong condemnation the next day.

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, “using every possible means.”

The move was also rejected by the European Union.

“The European Union, in accordance with international law, does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories it occupied since July 1967, including the Golan Heights, and does not consider them as part of Israeli territory,” Maya Kosyanchich, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, said in a statement.

The Trump administration has been considering recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic highlands, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War, after being threatened with annihilation by the surrounding Arab states, for some time. 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.”

Damascus 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.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said Trump’s “personal and arbitrary decisions” plunge the region into a new crisis, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit also criticized the American stance, saying it “comes outside the international legitimacy and no country, no matter how important it is, can make such a decision.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Trump’s “unfortunate” declaration has brought the region “to the brink of a new crisis and new tensions.”

“We will never allow the legitimization of the occupation of the Golan Heights,” Erdogan added. Egypt also issued a statement, saying the Golan is occupied Arab territory and calling for respect for international resolutions.

Russia: ‘Merely a declaration’

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Trump’s comments “can destabilize the already fragile situation in the Middle East.”

“The very idea is not helping the goals of the Middle East settlement, quite the other way around,” he said. “Right now, it’s merely a declaration. Let’s hope it will stay this way.”

There had been signals that a U.S. decision was coming. Last week, in its annual human rights report, the State Department dropped the phrase “Israeli-occupied” from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it “Israeli-controlled.”