Setting the necessary precedent? I'd say so. You can say ‘well it was only a tweet’. But, it was a significant tweet to be sure.Netanyahu grabbed onto it immediatelyReuters
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday it was time to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights that Israel seized from Syria in 1967, marking a dramatic shift in U.S. policy and giving a boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the middle of his re-election campaign. The disputed area was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally. Netanyahu has pressed the United States to recognise its claim and raised that possibility in his first White House meeting with Trump in February 2017.“After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognise Israel’s Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is currently in Israel meeting with Netanyahu just weeks before a heated Israeli election and the announcement will be seen as a boost for Netanyahu, who is battling charges of fraud and bribery.
Mike Pompeo says president 'possibly' sent by God to save Jewish people over Golan Heights
“I am confident that the Lord is at work here,” Mike Pompeo told the Christian Broadcasting Network in Jerusalem, over a decision branded “illegal” by Tehran.
Trump condemned by Iran, Turkey, Russia and Syria over support for Israel's claim to Golan Heights
Iran, Turkey and Russia are among a growing list of nations to have sharply criticised Donald Trump after he said it was time to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights, as Syria vowed to recover the area using "all available means".The Kremlin said Russia hoped Mr Trump's call to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights would remain just that, and not be enacted."It is just a call for now. Let's hope it will remain a call," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call. He also said such calls risk seriously destabilising the Middle East and harm efforts to find a peace settlement in the region.An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said: "This illegal and unacceptable recognition does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria.”Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on March 22 that Trump's move has brought the region to the edge of a new crisis. "We cannot allow the legitimization of the occupation of the Golan Heights," Erdogan told a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Syria's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency SANA that Damascus "condemns in the strongest terms the irresponsible statements of [Trump] regarding the occupied Syrian Golan."Trump's remark "affirms the blind bias of the United States to the Zionist occupation entity and its unlimited support for aggressive behavior," SANA added.
Next move for Trump? Recognizing the area the PKK/YPG/SDF declared as there own?Why not.SITREP Syria: Kurds Declare Their Region (March 10/19)
“Syrian Kurds unilaterally declared the creation of a federal region in northeastern Syria on Thursday, raising fears of an accelerating disintegration of Syria along ethnic and sectarian lines and complicating efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis.”
The recognition “came at the end of a two-day meeting in the northeastern Syrian town of Rmeilan”
Was anyone so naive to think the Kurds made this move without an OK from the US?As stated at the time that news was covered:
Undoubtedly US representatives were present. It’s absolute nonsense to believe the US does not fully support this move- This has been their goal all along. This is what has been worked towards for 8 years now
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