Israel says Trump to recognise Golan as its territory today

JERUSALEM: US President Donald Trump will sign an order recognising Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights when he meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington today (Monday), Israel’s foreign minister said.

“President Trump will sign tomorrow (Monday) in the presence of PM Netanyahu an order recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote on Twitter on Sunday.

Again breaking with longstanding international consensus, Trump said on Thursday that the United States should acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over the strategic plateau it seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. He however left unanswered if or when he would follow through with an order to do so.

Netanyahu has long pushed for such recognition, and many analysts saw Trump’s statement, which came in a tweet, as a campaign gift ahead of Israel’s April 9 polls. The prime minister is locked in tough election campaign with a centrist political alliance headed by former military chief Benny Gantz and ex-finance minister Yair Lapid.

Syria and other states in the region condemned Trump’s pledge, saying it violates international law. France said the same. Israel annexed the Golan in 1981 in a move never recognised by the international community. The decision is the latest major move in favour of Israel by Trump, who in 2017 recognised the disputed city of Jerusalem as the country’s capital.