The Politics of Golan Heights

President Trump overturned longstanding US policy regarding Israeli occupied Golan Heights to fully recognize ‘Israel’s sovereignty’ over the region.

Background

Israel seized the Golan Heights, a rocky plateau in southwestern Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and formally annexed the territory in 1981. An armistice line was established and the region came under Israeli military control. A United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) is stationed in camps and observation posts along the Golan, supported by military observers of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).

Southern Syria and the capital Damascus, about 60 km (40 miles) north, are clearly visible from the top of the Heights. It gives Israel an excellent vantage point for monitoring Syrian movements. The area is also a key source of water for an arid region. Syria wants a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 border which would give Damascus control of the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee - Israel's main source of fresh water.

Analysis

U.S. President Donald Trump said that the United States should back Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967. "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," Trump tweeted.

The announcement hands Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a significant foreign policy victory, less than three weeks before Israelis head to the polls to decide whether he should remain in power. The move comes just days before Netanyahu is set to join Trump at the White House and follows weeks during which Netanyahu has renewed his push for the US to recognize the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

The UN special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen said "The Security Council is very clear that the Golan is Syrian territory, and the first aspect of (Resolution) 2254 is, of course, the territorial integrity of Syria," he said in a news briefing in late February.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, appearing alongside Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Thursday, hailed the move as "historic" and "bold." "Tonight, President Trump made the decision to recognize that that hard-fought real estate, that important place, is proper to be a sovereign part of the state of Israel. President Trump made a bold decision to recognize that, an important decision for the people of Israel. It will truly be historic, and the people of Israel should know that the battles they fought, the lives that they lost on that very ground, were worthy and meaningful and important for all time," Pompeo said.

“It stirs a hornet’s nest that didn’t need stirring,” agreed Ilan Goldenberg, the director of the Middle East Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. “Nobody cares about the Golan Heights right now or is actively contesting Israel’s position in the Golan. So why create this headache?” Netanyahu has argued otherwise, saying that Iran’s attempts to entrench itself in Syria have made Israel’s hold on the Golan more important than ever. “All of you can imagine what would have happened if Israel were not in the Golan: We would have Iran on the shores of the Sea of Galilee,” he said.

More than 40,000 people live on the Israeli-occupied Golan of which most of them are Druze residents. The Druze are an Arab minority who practice an offshoot of Islam and many of its adherents in Syria have long been loyal to the Assad regime.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu affirmed his country's support for Syria's "territorial integrity." Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said “we cannot allow the legitimisation of the occupation of the Golan Heights”. Iran, another key ally of the Assad regime, said the move was illegal. “This illegal and unacceptable recognition does not change the fact that it belongs to Syria,” foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said. Russia, which has long been a key backer of Syria condemned Trump’s declaration as a violation of UN decisions. “Russia, as you know, takes a principled position on the issue of the Syrian Arab Republic’s ownership of the Golan Heights… Our assessment of the unlawful nature of Israel’s decision to extend its sovereignty to the Golan Heights remains unchanged,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Iran recently attacked the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from its positions in south-west Syria and Israel responded with airstrikes that it says destroyed “almost all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria”.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the announcement is seen in the US and among critics of Prime Minister Netanyahu as an election boost. It can be noted that US recognition of Golan Heights has no international legality. It would only threaten the regional stability taking into consideration that the US is working towards curbing Iran’s ambitions in the Middle East.