Leader's Top Aide Condemns Trump’s Remarks on Syria’s Golan Heights

Velayati, in a statement released on Sunday, denounced the Trump’s call to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, territory captured from Syria in a 1967 war.

Recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights by the US president will increase instability and crisis in the region, said Velayati who also acts as the Secretary General of the World Assembly of Islamic Awakening.

He said that this move by the US president will reaffirm the Resistance Front's commitment to fight the “Zionist regime” and its supporters.

The Golan Heights are the inseparable parts of Syria and the US presidents' move is against international law, Velayati noted.

He urged all Muslims and freedom seeking people to condemn the US bullying and support the Syran sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Velayati’s remarks came after Trump tweeted on Thursday, “After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and regional stability.”

Syria, Iran, Turkey, Russia, and even US allies in the Middle East including the Arab League have strongly condemned the move, supporting Syria's sovereignty over the Israeli-occupied territory.

Also on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in a tweet, “US is the single biggest source of instability in MidEast. It may be deluded enough to believe that persistently violating int'l law, bullying sovereign nations & milking its clients projects strength. It does not.”

“Its recklessness just displays panic of an empire in decline,” he highlighted.

Earlier on Friday morning, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi, in a statement, categorically condemned the recent remarks by Trump on the Golan Heights, reiterating that Tel Aviv has no sovereignty over Arab lands.

Personal and rash decisions of Trump will lead the critical region of the Middle East into successive crises, Qassemi highlighted, in a statement today where he vehemently denounced the recent remarks by US President Donald Trump on the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel, as an occupying regime, does not have sovereignty over any Arab and Islamic lands, and its aggressions and occupations should be stopped immediately, Qassemi said, noting that according to the UN Security Council resolution, Golan is part of the Syrian soil.

“There is no other solution to this than to end the occupation," the Iranian diplomat stressed.

The interventionist decision of the US president on the issue of Golan does not change the nature of Syria’s sovereignty over the region, and furthermore, it clearly proves the failure of compromising policies while at the same time ratifying the right path of the Resistance Front against the aggressive and expansionist nature of the United States and the Zionist regime, the senior diplomat added.

Referring to Trump’s violations of numerous UNSC resolutions and international laws, Qassemi reminded that the US president's policies are "dangerous" for all the world and especially for the Middles East.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will closely monitor all future developments and will adopt appropriate policies in cooperation and consultation with the Syrian government and other countries,” he highlighted.

In 1967, Israel waged a full-scale war against Arab territories, during which it occupied a large swathe of Golan and annexed it four years later, a move never recognized by the international community.

In 1973, another war broke out and a year later, a UN-brokered ceasefire came into force, according to which Tel Aviv and Damascus agreed to separate their troops and create a buffer zone in the Golan Heights.

Syria said last month that it is ready to go to another war with Israel in order to free its occupied territories.

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