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EU does not recognize Israel’s claim to Golan Heights: Mogherini

Wednesday, 20 April 2016 7:19 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 20 April 2016 8:45 AM ]

Sea of Galilee and southern Golan Heights

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini says the European bloc does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a day after Tel Aviv said the region would remain part of Israel “forever.”

Mogherini's remarks on Tuesday came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting for the first time in the occupied Golan Heights and ruled out returning them to Syria.

The top European diplomat said the EU does not recognize Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories after the 1967 war. “And this is a common consolidated position of the European Union and its member states,” she said.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights after the Six-Day War and illegally annexed the region in 1981, unanimously rejected the same year by the UN Security Council.

Tel Aviv has built tens of illegal settlements in the area since the annexation of the region. It has also used the occupied territory to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government.

Hezbollah condemns 'brazen violation'

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah condemned Israel’s move as it questioned the “Arab League’s position toward this aggression on the sovereignty and unity of an Arab country.”

“This move reaffirms the Zionist aggression against our nation and people and it is proof on this entity’s expansionist nature,” a Hezbollah statement said.

Hezbollah said that Israel’s move reinforces their policy to only deal with the “enemy with ongoing resistance, using all possible means to struggle, first and foremost through popular uprising."

A picture taken from the Israeli-occupied sector of the Golan Heights shows the border with Syria near the village of Majdal Shmas on April 17, 2016. © AFP

The resistance group said the “Zionist movement constantly acts to intervene in Syria's affairs and strives to divide Syria and cut the occupied Golan from it through cooperation with terror elements or on its own.”

Hezbollah also lashed out at certain Arab states - Saudi Arabia in particular - for their indifference toward Netanyahu's statement.

Following the criticism, the Arab League chief Nabil Al-Arabi said the Israeli move represented "a brazen violation of the principles of international law and legal international treaties."

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