Zarif: Islamic States 'Shocked' by US Call for Israeli Sovereignty Over Golans

11:22 GMT, 22 March 2019

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states condemn the recent statement by US President Donald Trump on the necessity to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Friday.

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"All shocked by Donald Trump continuing to try to give what is not his to racist Israel: first Al-Quds [and] now Golan," the minister tweeted while in Turkey at the OIC meeting.

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Earlier, US President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that now was the time for the US to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel. According to him, the time has come to take such a step in the interests of the security of Israel and the region as a whole.

In turn, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked Trump for "boldly" recognising Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights "at a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel".

A strategic area covering some 1,200 square kilometres, the Golan Heights were occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War. Netanyahu has repeatedly underlined that the Jewish state would not meet Syria's demands that it retreat to the 1967 lines because they were "indefensible", and that the Golan Heights would "remain in the hands of Israel forever".