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US President Donald Trump has signed a proclamation to formally recognise Israel's sovereignty over the disputed Golan Heights. The decision is a major shift in the American policy that gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a political boost a month before what is expected to be a close election.
The decision comes after 52 years of Israeli control of the region.
Netanyahu says his country holds the “high ground and shall never give it up.”
The Golan height is a 1,800 sq km rocky plateau in south-western Syria that was seized by Israel in 1967 and annexed in 1981, but the international community never recognised the move.
The elevated land is of strategic significance to both the countries, allowing a vantage point into southern Syria, northern Israel and southern Lebanon.
When Syria controlled the Golan heights, it regularly shelled northern Israel; now, Israel uses it to monitor Syrian movements.
UN Security Council resolution 497, issued after the annexation, refers to Israel as "the occupying power" and says Israel's attempt to "impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect."
World leaders are condemning Trump’s announcement as the United Nations still considers the Golan Heights as part of Syria. It had earlier passed UN Resolution 242, calling on Israel to withdraw from all territories that it occupied in the 1967 war, including the Golan Heights, Gaza and the West Bank. However, Israel has refused to do so.
Elections in Israel will be held in April 2019.
(With inputs from AP)
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