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The United Nations Security Council held an urgent public meeting yesterday at Syria’s request on the United States decision to recognize the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, diplomats said.
Syria made the request in a letter sent Tuesday to France, which holds the council presidency for the month of March, calling President Donald Trump’s decision a “flagrant violation” of UN resolutions.
Trump signed a proclamation Monday in which the United States recognized Israel’s annexation of the strategic plateau, despite UN resolutions that call for Israel’s withdrawal from the Golan.
Three Security Council resolutions call on Israel to withdraw from the Golan, which it seized from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed in 1981, in a move that was never recognized internationally.
At a meeting on the Middle East on Tuesday, several countries spoke out against the US decision and European countries voiced concern that the move could have broad consequences in the region. Two of Washington’s closest allies, Britain and France joined Belgium, Germany and Poland to declare that the European position had not changed and that the Golan remained Israeli-occupied Syrian territory, in line with international law enshrined in UN resolutions.
