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EU ‘Does Not Recognize Israeli Sovereignty over Occupied Golan Heights’

The Council of the European Union announced on Wednesday that its position regarding the status of the Golan Heights had not changed despite US President Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Israeli sovereignty there. “In line with international law and UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 497, the European Union does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights,” it said in a statement. Trump’s official declaration on Monday made the United States the first country to recognize Israeli sovereignty, deviating from an international consensus that regards the area as occupied territory. Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981. The Trump Administration’s announcement was strongly condemned by the Arab League as well as Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. In a televised speech on Tuesday, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah described it as a “knockout punch” to peace in the region and that “resistance” was the only solution. The terror group has backed President Bashar al-Assad in Syria during the country’s eight-year civil war. Thousands of Syrians staged protests on Tuesday across different cities against the US. Protests took place in northern Aleppo, Homs and Hama in the country’s center, and in the southern cities of Sweida and Deraa, the latter being roughly 12 miles from the Golan.