In a statement sent to Newsweek, the Syrian mission to the United Nations accused President Donald Trump’s administration of having “disdain and contempt of international law and the UN Charter.”
Syria has expressed to Newsweek its opposition to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s visit to the Golan Heights, whose occupation and annexation by Israel is recognized by the United States but not the overwhelming majority of the international community. Pompeo visited the disputed territory during a trip to Israel, the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East, in what’s projected to be the final weeks of President Donald Trump’s administration. The top U.S. diplomat’s trip was hailed by Israel as a further legitimization of its control over the Golan Heights, but condemned by the Syrian mission to the United Nations as an example of the White House’s unilateral prioritization of Israel and a flagrant violation of international law. “By visiting the occupied Syrian Golan today, the Secretary of State, Pompeo, expresses the will of Trump Administration to prove, till the last day of its tenure, its allegiance to Israel and serving its interests on the expense of the stability and security of the region and welfare of its people,” the mission told Newsweek in a statement. The mission said the U.S. trip also “shows much disdain and contempt of international law and the U.N. Charter.” The Trump administration reversed decades of U.S. policy last year by recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel, which seized the territory during the country’s 1967 war with a coalition of Arab states including Syria. On Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cited this decision along with the Trump administration’s recognition of the disputed city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, its economic and military “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran and its efforts to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as other Arab countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, as evidence of why Israel “has no better friend in the world than the United States of America” under the current White House. Standing alongside him at the Golan Heights, Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi also referred to Pompeo as “a great friend of Israel” on Thursday.
