World countries blast US on Golan, Syria vows to liberate Israeli occupied territory

The Arab League, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Iraq have strongly warned the US after President Donald Trump declared Thursday that he will recognize Syria's Golan Heights as Israeli territory.

The strategic highlands have been under the Israeli occupation since 1967, but Trump's abrupt declaration on Friday, a day after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to Israel, brings the dispute to a boiling point.

Iraq became the latest country to condemn Trump's statement, with the Iraqi foreign ministry saying on Twitter on Saturday that the US plan "contravenes international law."

Syria, which declared last month that it was ready to go to another war with Israel for the Golan, condemned Trump's pledge in a statement issued by its Foreign Ministry on Friday. 

"The American position towards Syria's occupied Golan Heights clearly reflects the United States' contempt for international legitimacy and its flagrant violation of international law," it said. 

“The irresponsible remarks by Trump, the US president, one more time demonstrated the US’ blind and relentless support for the Israeli occupying regime and its hostile acts,” it added.

Following the announcement by Trump, Syria asked the UN Security Council to uphold resolutions urging Israel to withdraw from the region.

In a letter seen by AFP, Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari called on the council to "take practical measures to ensure that the council is fulfilling... its mandate in the implementation of its resolutions" concerning the Golan Heights.

The council will discuss the issue on Wednesday as it reconvenes to discuss renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force deployed between Israel and Syria in the Golan, known as UNDOF.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Trump's statement has brought the region to the edge of a new crisis.

In a speech at a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Istanbul, Erdogan said: "We cannot allow the legitimization of the occupation of the Golan Heights." 

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed shock at Trump's plan.

"All shocked by @realDonaldTrump continuing to try to give what is not his to racist Israel: first Al-Quds & now Golan" Zarif tweeted from Istanbul where he was attending the emergency OIC meeting. 

"This illegal and unacceptable recognition does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said in Tehran.

“The Zionist regime, as an occupying regime, has no sovereignty over any Islamic and Arab lands and its occupation (of the Golan) and acts of violation should be swiftly brought to an end,” he said.

Qassemi said the only solution to the Golan dispute is to end the Israeli occupation. He said Trump's "personal and rash decisions reveal yet another reality of US policies that are dangerous to the entire world, and will particularly push this volatile region to successive crises.”

The Islamic Republic, he said, "will closely monitor all future developments in the region and continue its cooperation and consultations with the Syrian government and other countries to take appropriate measures."

Egypt also rejected Trump's remarks, saying it considered the Golan Heights as occupied Syrian land.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency MENA that "everybody should respect the resolutions of international legitimacy and the United Nations Charter in respect of the inadmissibility of acquiring land by force."

UK has no plans to follow suit

Meanwhile, America's close foreign policy ally Britain said Friday it had no plans to change its stance on the Israeli-occupied Golan.

"The UK views the Golan Heights as territory occupied by Israel. Annexation of territory by force is prohibited under international law, including the UN Charter," a British Foreign Office spokesman said in a statement.
"We did not recognize Israel’s annexation in 1981 and have no plans to change our position."

Trump's announcement came ahead of a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States next week.  

In a tweet that caught many by surprise, Trump said the time had come for the United States to take the step, which Netanyahu warmly welcomed as a “miracle” on the Jewish holiday of Purim.

PressTV-Trump: Time to recognize 'Israeli sovereignty' over Golan

US President Donald Trump says it was time to back "Israeli sovereignty" over the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory under occupation since 1967.

"After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!" Trump tweeted.

The US would be the first country to recognize the annexation, which the rest of the international community regards as Syria territory occupied by Israel. 

The Syrian statement on Friday said Washington’s stance is a threat to global peace and security. 

"The statements of the US president and his administration on the occupied Syrian Golan will never change the fact that the Golan was and will remain Arab and Syrian," it said.

"The Syrian nation is more determined to liberate this precious piece of Syrian national land through all available means," it added.

Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the 22-member organization "fully supports Syria's right for its occupied territory." 

The Golan Heights are “occupied territory” belonging to Syria under international law and the resolutions of the United Nations and the UN Security Council, he stressed. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also condemned the US president's declaration, stressing that Ankara supports Syria’s territorial integrity.

"Attempts by the US to legitimize Israel's actions against international law will only lead to more violence and pain in the region," he wrote in a tweet late Thursday.

PressTV-UN urges Israel to withdraw from Syria’s Golan

The UN General Assembly has called on Israel to withdraw from the entirety of Syria's Golan Heights.

A member of the Russian Federation Council also slammed Trump's pledge, saying "Russia will never recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights."

Oleg Morozov said Trump’s move is aimed at splitting the Arab world and undermine Syria and its “partnership with Russia.”

Last week, in its annual human rights report, the US State Department dropped the phrase “Israeli-occupied” from the Golan Heights section, instead calling it “Israeli-controlled.”

Netanyahu has for weeks been stepping up longstanding Israeli requests for the US and others to recognize the occupied Golan as Israeli territory.

Trump’s announcement came as Pompeo was wrapping up a two-day trip to Jerusalem al-Quds during which he made a controversial visit to the Buraq Wall, called by Israel as the Wailing Wall, in the Old City. 

The visit made him the highest-ranking US official to visit the site with any Israeli leader and appeared to further signal the Trump administration’s support for Israel’s control of the contested city.

In December 2017, Trump formally recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the so-called capital of Israel and later moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city which Palestinians view as the capital of their future state.

Pompeo’s visit also appeared to signal Trump’s support for Netanyahu who is facing a tough challenge in the upcoming elections and reeling from a series of corruption scandals. 

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