EU Reaffirms It Does Not Recognize «Israel’s» Sovereignty Over Golan

By Staff, Agencies

The European Union underlined it does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights on Friday after US President Donald Trump moved to do so for the territory viewed by European allies as occupied.

"The position of the EU has not changed," an EU spokeswoman told Reuters. "The European Union, in line with international law, does not recognize ‘Israel's’ sovereignty over the territories occupied by ‘Israel’ since June 1967, including the Golan Heights and does not consider them to be part of ‘Israel's’ territory."

Relatedly, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has warned that Trump's recent statement on the Golan Heights puts "the Middle East region on the brink 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 on Friday.

For its part, Egypt said it considers the Golan Heights as occupied Syrian land, rejecting Trump’s Golan statement.

In a statement carried by state news agency MENA, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry cited UN Security Council resolution 497 of 1981 which rejected the “Israeli” entity’s annexation of the territory.

The ministry “stressed the importance that everybody should respect the resolutions of international legitimacy and the United Nations Charter in respect of the inadmissibility of acquiring land by force,” the statement said.