A statement by President Donald Trump that the US should recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is likely to stir tensions.
Russia, Iran and Syria on Friday criticized President Donald Trump’s announcement that the United States intends to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied-Golan Heights. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said changing Golan’s status would violate UN Security Council Resolutions.
The move comes as Israel has been pushing the Trump administration for recognition and some members of the Republican Party are backing the idea.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry said the move showed “the blind bias of the United States to the Zionist entity,” in reference to Israel.
The president wrote in a tweet the day before that it was time for the United States to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the strategic territory that was captured from Syria in the 1967 Six-day War and annexed in 1981.
“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!”
Damascus said that Trump’s statement won’t change “the fact that Golan was and will remain Arab and Syrian.” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the “illegal and unacceptable recognition does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria.”