Turkey does not accept the “unlawful” US decision to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights in Syria, the Turkish foreign minister said on Wednesday, according to the Hürriyet Daily News.
Speaking in northwestern Tekirdağ province, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said the US move is “null and void” and violates international law.
“We object to [the US] decision and we don’t recognize it,” Çavuşoğlu said.
On March 25 US President Donald Trump signed a presidential proclamation officially recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory.
The UN said the Golan Heights is still considered an “occupied territory” under international law, despite Trump’s announcement.
Israel occupies roughly two-thirds of the wider Golan Heights as a de facto result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict. It moved to formally annex the territory in 1981 — an action unanimously rejected at the time by the UN Security Council.