WASHINGTON, March 22 (NNN-AGENCIES) – President Donald Trump announced the United States should acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over the hotly contested Golan Heights territory, in a major pre-election gift to his ally Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize
Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Trump said in a tweet.
Trump called the Golan — a strategic area seized from Syria and annexed
in a move never recognized by the international community — “of critical
strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional
Stability!”
The Golan is home to about 20,000 Israeli settlers.
Trump’s abruptly announced decision was immediately cheered by Netanyahu, who faces a tough reelection battle and visits Washington next week.
“At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel,
President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan
Heights,” the right-wing prime minister wrote on Twitter. “Thank you
President Trump!”
There was also quick approval from the senior Republican in the US Senate,
Lindsey Graham, who is pushing for Congress to recognize Israeli control over the Golan.
“President Trump’s decision to recognize the Golan as part of Israel is
strategically wise and overall awesome. Well done, Mr. President!” Graham
tweeted.
This is the second diplomatic bombshell dropped by Washington, which is
Israel’s main backer, in seeking to redraw the fraught Middle East map.
In 2017, Trump went against decades of practice by recognizing the
disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, rather than the previously
accepted Tel Aviv.
The Golan Heights move was hinted at a week ago when the State Department changed its usual description of the area as “occupied” to “Israeli-controlled.”
The Trump State Department has also dropped previous definitions of the
Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip as being “occupied”
by the Jewish state.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights, West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza
Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War.
It later annexed the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem in moves never
recognized by the international community.
Trump’s latest shakeup comes ahead of the expected unveiling of a White
House plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Palestinian leaders, who broke off
contact with Washington after the recognition of Jerusalem by Trump, say they expect the plan to be blatantly biased in favor of Israel.
Trump will host Netanyahu at the White House next Monday and Tuesday. The Israeli leader will be in Washington for the annual conference of the
powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) pro-Israel lobbying group. — NNN-AGENCIES