\nWASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump officially recognized Israel’s\u00a0sovereignty\u00a0of the Golan Heights in Washington on Monday.<\/p>\n
\nThe document reverses more than a half-century of US\u00a0policy as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the White House.<\/p>\n
\nTrump had previewed the move in a tweet last week, in which he said the US would take the step\u00a0after 52 years of Israeli occupation of the strategic highlands on the border with Syria.<\/p>\n
\nIsrael captured the region from Syria in 1967\u00a0but its sovereignty over the territory is not recognized by the international community.<\/p>\n
\nThe Syrian government said that Washington’s recognition\u00a0of Israeli claims over the Golan Heights were a blatant attack on its sovereignty.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn a blatant attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, the president of the US has recognised the annexation of the Syrian Golan,” a foreign ministry source said, according to state news agency SANA.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cTrump does not have the right and the legal authority to legitimise the occupation,” the unnamed source\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
\nLast Friday, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) expressed regret\u00a0at\u00a0Donald Trump’s plan\u00a0to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territory.<\/p>\n
\nTrump’s statement \u201cwill not change the reality that (…) the Arab Golan Heights is Syrian land occupied by Israel by military force in 1967,\u201d\u00a0said Abdul Latif Al Zayani, the GCC secretary general.<\/p>\n
\nPalestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said he condemned the move by the US.<\/p>\n
\nAfter Trump’s decision, Russia\u00a0warned\u00a0it would prompt a\u00a0\u201cnew wave\u201d\u00a0of tensions in the Middle East region.\u00a0Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the move \u201cignores all international procedures\u201d\u00a0and would \u201conly aggravate the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cUnfortunately, this could drive a new wave of tensions in the Middle East region,\u201d\u00a0Zakharova said in a radio broadcast, according to Russian news agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nRussian Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov said the US decision leads to \u201ca gross violation of international law, blocks the resolution of the Syrian crisis and aggravates the situation in all the Middle East,\u201d\u00a0he said during a telephone call with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to his ministry.<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile, Turkey\u2019s foreign minister Mevlut\u00a0Cavusoglu said it was \u201cimpossible\u201d for his country to accept Trump\u2019s decision, and added\u00a0his country\u00a0would take action,\u00a0including at the United Nations.<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile,\u00a0UN\u00a0Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it was \u201cclear that the status of the Golan\u00a0has not changed,\u201d\u00a0according to a UN spokesman.<\/p>\n