Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has lashed out at the US President following Trump's most recent remarks on the Golan Heights, stressing that “the territorial integrity of states is the most fundamental principle of international law”.
“Attempts by the US to legitimise Israel's actions against international law will only lead to more violence and pain in the region. Turkey supports Syria's territorial integrity,”Cavusogly tweeted on Friday.
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He responded to Thursday’s tweet by US President Donald Trump, who claimed that 52 years after the Israeli took the Golan Heights, located in Syria's Quneitra province, it is time for his country “to fully recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and regional stability”.
The move was praised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who specifically applauded Trump’s “bold” decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
In a separate development on Thursday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) that as a Christian, he “certainly believes it’s possible that “President Trump right now has been sort of raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace.”
READ MORE: US Lawmakers Push Resolution to Recognise Israeli Sovereignty Over Golan Heights
Pompeo made the remarks in Jerusalem, where he visited the Western Wall with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Earlier this month, The Hill cited US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham as saying that he will push the Trump administration to formally recognise the disputed Golan Heights region as part of Israel, according to a report by The Hill.
Graham made the announcement after a joint tour of the territory by him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Envoy to Israel David Friedman.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has, in turn, repeatedly emphasised that the Jewish state would not agree to meet Syria’s demands and retreat to the 1967 lines, because they were “indefensible”.
