Arabs Reject US Recognition of Golan as Israeli

By Nawal Sayed

CAIRO, March 26 (SEE) – Gulf and Arab countries condemned on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait criticized Monday's move to recognize Israel's 1981 annexation and said the territory was an occupied Arab land.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi said it was an impediment to peace.

Iran also echoed the comments, describing Trump's decision as unprecedented this century.

"No one could imagine that a person in America comes and gives land of a nation to another occupying country, against international laws and conventions," President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

On Monday, Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking over his shoulder during a visit to Washington, signed a proclamation officially granting U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as an Israeli territory.

Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in a 1967 war and annexed it in 1981, in a move the U.N. Security Council declared unlawful.

The State of Qatar joined the Gulf countries in rejecting Trump's move and called on Israel to end its occupation of the Golan Heights and comply with international resolutions.

Lebanon said the decision contravened international law.

"The world is witnessing a black day," Lebanese President Michel Aoun said on Twitter during a visit to Russia.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, a key Damascus ally, said the move was evidence of U.S. "disdain and disregard" for the Arab and Muslim world and of international law.

"This absolute supporter of Israel cannot be a sponsor of the peace process and here he is today dealing a deadly blow to the so-called peace process," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

Nasrallah said Trump had been emboldened by Arab "silence" after U.S. recognition last year of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and warned that the West Bank, also captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, could be next.

On its part, the Syrian foreign minister said the United States' recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights will lead to its isolation, state television reported on Monday .

Minister Walid al-Moualem added: "No matter how many years have passed, this will not change the fact that the Golan is an occupied Syrian territory."