Trump to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over Golan on Monday: Israeli FM

US President Donald Trump will sign an order recognizing the Israeli regime's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, Israel's Foreign Minister Israel Katz says.

In a post on his Twitter account on Sunday, Katz added that Trump would issue the decree on Monday in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

"President Trump will sign tomorrow in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," the foreign minister said.

Trump said on Thursday that it was time to back what he described as the Israeli regime's "sovereignty" over the Golan Heights, a Syrian territory under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Six-Day War.

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!" the US president wrote on Twitter.

Netanyahu has long pushed for such recognition and many analysts believe that Trump's Golan Heights announcement is a campaign gift ahead of Israel's legislative elections on April 9.

The prime minister faces an increasingly tough time ahead as his biggest political opponent overtakes him in popularity and as calls mount for him to resign over looming corruption charges that could effectively end his political career.

Ex-Israeli military chief of staff Benny Gantz, head of the newly-formed center-left Blue and White political alliance, has both gained in popularity — past that of Netanyahu’s — and urged the Israeli prime minister to resign.

The Arab League, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Iraq on Friday strongly warned the US after President Trump declared that he will recognize Syria's Golan Heights as Israeli territory, saying it violates international law. France said the same.

PressTV-World countries blast US on Golan, Syria vows liberation

The Arab League, Russia, Iran, Turkey and Iraq issue strong warnings to the US after President Trump says 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 brings the dispute to a boiling point.

Trump's decision is the latest major move in favor of Israel. In December 2017, he 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.

In a Sunday statement, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the US president has only made the resistance front more resolute against the Israeli regime and its supporters.

PressTV-'Trump's Golan call only bolsters anti-Israel resistance'

An Iranian official says the Trump announcement will strengthen the resistance against Israel.

Ali Akbar Velayati, who is also secretary general of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening, emphasized that the recognition of the “tyrannical occupation of the Golan Heights … which is aimed at making that regime feel secure, will undoubtedly add to regional problems and make the resistance front more resolute in fighting the Zionist regime and its supporters.”

Read more:

• Druze in Golan rap Trump's Israeli ‘sovereignty’ comment
• US decision to recognize Syria's Golan as Israeli territory 'illegal’ : Analyst
• Malaysian PM Mahathir: Israel ‘a state of robbers’
• US lawmakers move to recognize Syria’s Golan Heights as Israeli territory
• Netanyahu urges US to recognize Israel’s annexation of Golan

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