Pakistan rejects US recognition of Golan Heights as Israeli territory

This file photo shows a sign reading Golan in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, located at the 1967 Israel-Syria border point, near the sea of Galilee in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights on March 24, 2019. (AFP/File)

• Calls President Trump’s decision “the most unfortunate development”
• European nations, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Gulf countries have already criticized Trump’s move

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights and said the move was “unfortunate.”
In a dramatic shift from decades of US policy, Trump on Monday signed a proclamation officially granting US recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory. 
Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move the UN Security Council has declared as unlawful.
“This is the most unfortunate development, we reject it,” Pakistani information minister Fawad Chaudhry told Arab News. “Israel has illegally occupied Golan and there is no moral or legal justification for their claim to it, or for what the US has done.”
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait have already criticized Trump’s move. 
“It will have significant negative effects on the peace process in the Middle East and the security and stability of the region,” said a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has refused to talk to the United States since Trump ordered the US embassy moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, expressed his “absolute rejection.”
European members of the United Nations Security Council — France, Britain, Germany, Belgium and Poland — have also said they did not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the lands it has occupied since June 1967, including the Golan Heights.
“This is part of the expansion doctrine of Israel and it is unfortunate that the United States is backing it,” Chaudhry said. “This is the kind of injustice that breeds extremism, and leads to greater tussle between civilizations and people.” 
Responding to reports that Trump’s call for recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights was a boost for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu two weeks before he went into an election, Chaudhry said that as a “global superpower” it was important that the United States “not take decisions based on petty political games.”
For many Arabs, Trump’s move has dashed hopes of a negotiated peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians and raised doubts that Washington is a neutral arbiter. Many also fear the decision could tempt other powers to annex land, undermine a US Middle East peace plan and push Israel back into conflict with its Arab neighbors.
“The responsibility on the US as a superpower is global,” Chaudhry said. “They are reducing the chances of a safe, secure and bright future for the world and especially the Arab world by taking such decisions.”