The Arab world does not have the Golan Heights among its priorities

IRBIL, Iraq – In 2010, the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has asked President Barack Obama, in a private letter, to sponsor new peace talks between Syria and Israel, an initiative that has become a diplomatic chimera for several American leaders.

The main objective was to discuss the the control of the Golan Heights, a strategic rocky plateau at the point of tension where the modern states of Syria, Israel, jordan and the Lebanon and from which Israel seized in the Six-day war of 1967.

The talks were never organized and in 2011, a civil war broke out that destroyed Syria and reconfigured the regional order so much so that when President Donald Trump called Thursday, March 21, for US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, the change was met with indifference in the Arab world.

Currently, the Gulf countries are more interested in badociating with Israel against Iran than defending abstract ideas of Arab dignityand the malaise and economic problems left the other Arab countries more concerned about their internal affairs.

"The Golan Heights has always been regarded as the treasure that Israel would yield to obtain peace with Syria, and now peace does not matter."Syria does not matter and perhaps Syria does not exist at the negotiating table as the rightful owner of these lands, "he said. Kareem Sakka, editor in chief of Raseef22, an information site in Arabic.

The Golan Heights is a surprisingly beautiful and strategic region which gives the controller a clear military advantage over the surrounding area. Syrian military forces used to bomb Galilee, and Israel considered it a strategic badet that he deemed necessary for his own safety, which displaced tens of thousands of Arab inhabitants of the region during the process.

It was a painful blow for the Arabs, which considered the Israeli occupation as another example of an international order that could not impose its own rules. Syria launched an unsuccessful attempt to reclaim the region during the 1973 war, which resulted in an armistice that brought in international observers but left most of the territory under Israeli control.

In 1981, Israel effectively annexed the territory, a decision rejected by a UN Security Council resolution based on the principle that "the acquisition of territories by force is inadmissible".

"The Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is void and has no international legal effect," the resolution says.

However, there was little to do to apply it, and The denunciation of occupation has become a key topic of conversation for President Hafez al Assad, the father of the current president. In a country where all political activity must be approved, gatherings in favor of the Golan were common and school children were learning slogans for their release.

Despite this, often remained the forgotten piece of "occupied territories". Sinai returned to Egypt as part of a peace agreement and the fate of the West Bank and Gaza became the center of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

Several US presidents have tried to restart peace talks between Syria and Israel, which culminated in the Obama effort and John Kerry, your secretary of state. But the Syrian civil war changed everything. With all its resources devoted to the defeat of rebels and jihadist groups, the Syrian government has left the Golan on its list of priorities. As the war eroded the Syrian state, Israel has established quiet relations with rebels near the Golanand brought them to Israel for medical treatment.

The brutality of Assad left him with few members of the region They are willing to take sides on a question of international law, said Hussein Ibish, a senior researcher resident at the Arab Gulf Institute in Washington.

"When society thinks of Syria, it will be more concerned with death and suffering only with the official loss of something they had already lost for a long time, "he said.

However, Trump's recognition of another country's seizure of state lands may make US pressure more difficult when authoritarian leaders execute land grabbing.

"International and international law ideas will be hit hard here"says Ibish. "Right now, what should we say to Saddam Hussein in Kuwait? We do not want you to be there."

Copyright: 2019 New York Times News Service