Support for Netanyahu
Golan Heights Israel’s: Trump
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump forcefully interjected himself into Israeli politics yesterday, recognising the Golan Heights as the country’s territory in a bid to secure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection next month — and perhaps his own a year later.
Trump has made naked appeals to US Jewish voters to abandon any allegiance to the Democratic Party, calling his opposition antiSemitic while promoting his unprecedented decisions to expand US recognition of Israeli sovereignty at the expense of the Palestinians.
The president moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem in 2018, recognising the divided city as Israel’s capital. In a tweet yesterday, Trump said ‘‘it is time for the United States to fully recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights’’, disputed territory the Jewish State effectively annexed in 1981, a move that was not internationally recognised.
A The Syrian government yes terday condemned on Trump’s statement on the Golan Heights and said Syria was determined to recover the area ‘‘through all available means’’.
The Syrian state news agency said a foreign ministry source said it did not change ‘‘the reality that the Golan was and will remain Syrian, Arab’’.
‘‘The Syrian nation is more determined to liberate this precious piece of Syrian national land through all available means,’’ the source said, adding Trump’s statement was ‘‘irresponsible’’ and showed ‘‘contempt’’ for international law.
An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Bahram Qasemi, yesterday said: ‘‘This illegal and unacceptable recognition does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria.’’
Netanyahu, who may soon be indicted on corruption charges, has praised Trump’s recognition of its control over the Golan Heights as a holiday ‘‘miracle’’. — TCA/Reuters