UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Security Council has scheduled to meet, at the request of Syria, over US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move the UN Security Council declared “null and void and without international legal effect”.
In a letter to the 15-member Security Council requesting a meeting, Syria described the US decision as a “flagrant violation” of Security Council resolutions.
Trump, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looking over his shoulder during a visit to Washington, on Monday signed a proclamation officially granting US recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
The Security Council deployed a peacekeeping force in 1974 — known as the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) — to monitor a ceasefire between Syria and Israel in the Golan Heights. There are more than 880 UN troops on the ground.
The US move on the Golan has left fractious Arab nations scrambling for a united response to a decision taken by a key ally, analysts said.
Angry reactions have poured in from Arab capitals. But the seemingly united front is only a veneer masking the deep dilemma for Arab governments left trying to deal with Washington’s “fait accompli”, analysts said.
Those Arab states who are “allies of the United States are the most embarrassed because they have gone to great lengths to get closer to Donald Trump”, said Karim Bitar, senior fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.
Some Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia have been cosying up to Washington, hoping to influence a long-awaited Middle East peace plan due to be presented in the coming months.
But with the Trump administration shredding long-accepted regional conventions, Arab allies are left in an increasingly humiliating position.
