SANAA – The Syrian government on Friday condemned US President Donald Trump’s pledge to recognise Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in 1967.
“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,” a foreign ministry source told the official SANA news agency.
The US president made the announcement through his Twitter handle, sending shock waves across the Middle East and Muslim community.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1108772952814899200
Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh criticized the remarks of US President and termed it blind prejudice in favour of Israel.
“It is the Palestinian and Syrian peoples who determine the legal status of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights … This Israeli escalation along with the United States’ blind prejudice in favor of Israel will further exacerbate regional escalation and tension,” the spokesman said in a press release, as quoted by the WAFA news agency.
Rudeineh also called for the implementation of the UN resolutions on the need for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories.
Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Trump’s statement on the necessity to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights was bringing the region to the verge of a new conflict.
“This unfortunate statement [by Trump] brings the MiddleEast region on the brink of a new crisis,” Erdogan said at an emergency meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Iran also expressed its displeasure over the motive of US President. Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif took to Twitter and called out the US for being ‘single biggest source of instability in MisEast’.
https://twitter.com/JZarif/status/1109132836588662786
The Golan Heights, located at the Syrian-Israeli border, has been controlled by Israel ever since it captured the area from Damascus during the Six-Day War in 1967.
The decision by Trump confirms that US and Israel are moving closer, the first indication of which was recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
