BBC:
President Donald Trump has overturned decades of US policy by saying it is time to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967.…
Israel annexed the Golan in 1981 in a move not recognised internationally.…
Richard Haass, a former senior US state department official who is now president of the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, said he „strongly disagreed“ with Mr Trump. He said such recognising Israeli sovereignty would violate a UN Security Council resolution, „which rules out acquiring territory by war“.…
But the formal US recognition doesn’t change anything on the ground: Israel was already acting with full military authority.So critics have concluded this was a blatant attempt to give Mr Netanyahu a boost in a hotly-contested election.
If so, it’s one that violates important principles of international law, they say: Mr Trump has endorsed the seizure of territory, and will have no moral authority to criticise Russia for doing so in Ukraine’s Crimea.
For the BBC it’s „Ukraine’s Crimea“, but „the occupied Golan Heights“ — not „Syria’s Golan Heights“. One grumbling murmur of dissent is heard in the voice of a former senior state department official. There is nothing to see here, nothing is changed on the ground. While critics may claim „important principles of international law“ have been violated, the BBC isn’t about to say that. The BBC’s hard-hitting analyst asks only „Was Trump’s tweet a surprise for his aides?“
