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Donald Trump announced that the United States will recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967, in a dramatic move likely to reinforce Benjamin Netanyahu's hope of being re-elected but also to arouse international opposition.
Previous US administrations have treated the Golan Heights as an occupied Syrian territory, in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions. Trump declared his break with this policy, in a tweet thursday.
"After 52 years, it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is critically important in strategic and security terms for the state of Israel." Israel and regional stability!
In defying a unanimously adopted United Nations resolution on the acquisition of territory by war, Trump also violated the post-war rule of refusing to recognize the United States. forced annexation of a territory – which has underpinned the Western and international opposition Russian annexation of Crimea.
"The United States relies on these fundamental principles concerning the peaceful settlement of disputes and the rejection of the acquisition of a territory by force," Tamara Cofman Wittes, former secretary of the United States, said. Assistant State for Near Eastern Affairs, wrote on Twitter. Wittes, who is now a senior member of the Brookings Institution, added that this decision "clearly removes US policy against the annexation of Crimea by Russia, as well as the views of the United States on 39, other disputed territories ".
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, quickly tweeted his gratitude for Trump's gesture.
"As Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," the Israeli prime minister wrote. "Thank you President Trump!"
The announcement was made while Netanyahu was hosting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem.
"President Trump has just entered history," Netanyahu said. "I called him.I thanked him on behalf of the people of Israel.The message that President Trump gave to the world is that America stands by the side of the world. Israel. "
Pompeo said, "Tonight, President Trump made the decision to acknowledge that real estate, hard-fought, was an important place, that it should be an integral part of the state of 39, Israel. "
He added: "The Israeli people should know that the battles they fought, the lives they lost on this land, were dignified, significant and important for all time."
This announcement marks a diplomatic blow for Netanyahu, two weeks before a tight election and four days before his visit to Washington.
Administration officials had previously rejected Netanyahu's pressure for recognition of Israel's possession of the strategic border area, noting that Trump had already made a significant political donation to the Israeli leader by transferring the US embbady to Israel from Tel Aviv. Aviv in Jerusalem.
The recognition of the Golan could pave the way for US recognition of Israel's sovereignty in the occupied Palestinian territories. In a recent State Department report on human rights, the administration changed its description of the West Bank and Gaza from "occupied territories" to "territories under Israeli control". .
Robert Malley, former adviser to Barack Obama for the Middle East and now head of the International Crisis Group, said: "This decision is extremely political – it is timely to strengthen the electoral chances of Netanyahu; free – it will not alter in any way Israel's control of the Golan Heights; in defiance of international law; and a worrying step at a time when the voices in Israel calling for the annexation of the West Bank are getting stronger. "
"This is part of the unilateral policy of the administration in the Middle East and confirms that its goal is not Arab-Israeli peace, but a fundamental redefinition of the parameters that led to its continuation."
Israel progressively advanced on the Golan Heights in the years following the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and fully occupied it during the 1967 war. That year, UN Security Council Resolution 242 emphasized "The inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in which every state in the region can live in safety."
Another resolution, supported by the Reagan government in 1981, rejected as "null and void" the decision to place the area under direct Israeli jurisdiction.
Over the decades, many unsuccessful attempts have been made to negotiate a peaceful solution to the fate of the Golan Heights – the last time in 2010, when the Obama administration and Netanyahu engaged in secret talks with Syrian dictator Bashar al -Assad, peace treaty involving the Israeli withdrawal.
But this effort failed with the spread of the Arab Spring revolt in Syria and Assad's decision to crush the rebellion by slaughtering protesters in 2011.
Frederic Hof, a former senior State Department official involved in these negotiations, told the Guardian Thursday that annexation "would be an entirely free gesture with potential diplomatic inconveniences for Israel and for the safety of Israelis. ".
Hof said: "Israel's fiercest enemies, Iran and Hezbollah, will welcome annexation as an additional justification for terrorist operations. This would allow the Syrian regime Assad to change the subject of its war crimes and crimes against humanity to the official acquisition of the territory by Israel, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 242. It would do absolutely nothing positive for the security of Israel. "
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