Support from Uncle Sam

President Trump's tweeted announcement that the United States will recognise Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 marked a dramatic shift in America's policy that will encourage Israeli parties that have been promoting the annexation of parts of the Palestinian West Bank.

The announcement is also likely to boost the electoral prospects of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of President Trump's conspicuous international supporters. Netanyahu is struggling to fend off corruption charges and a stiff challenge in the April 9 elections.

While making his declaration, Trump said: "After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognise Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance of the state of Israel and Regional Stability!"

By referring to his decision being of "critical strategic and Security importance" Trump was referring to Iran, with whom he has a hostile relationship. US allies in the Arab world accuse Teheran of supporting terrorism in the region, a charge denied by Iran.

For decades, the US and most of the world have rejected Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The issue of Golan Heights has been treated by previous US administrations as occupied Syrian territory in line with the UN Security Council resolution.

Trump has basically overturned the principle enshrined in the UN charter: you can't keep land that you capture; you have to negotiate its fate.

Netanyahu, who was hosting the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Jerusalem, when the announcement came, immediately tweeted his gratitude to Trump.

"At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognises Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," said Netanyahu, who is travelling to the US to meet the US president this week.

The announcement was music to the ears of Netanyahu who, in 2016, had held his cabinet meeting in the occupied Syrian territory and declared that Israel would never leave the Golan Heights.

"I choose to have this festive Cabinet meeting on the Golan Heights to send a clear message: the Golan Heights will forever remain in Israeli hands", he said adding - "it is time, after 50 years, that the international community, finally recognises that the Golan will forever remain under Israeli sovereignty."

Trump's move also reinforces the perception that his administration is redefining the US policy with respect to the Palestinian issue in a way that favours the Jewish state. He has already declared the contested city of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, gave a significant political gift to Israeli leader by moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and cut funding to UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees demanding a right of return to the homeland.

The administration has also virtually stopped all assistance to the Palestinian Authority, charging it with terrorists and rejecting the peace initiative. The US move can also be seen as a prelude to its recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Palestinian occupied territories. In a recent State Department report on human rights, the administration changed its description of the West Bank and Gaza from 'occupied territories' to 'Israeli controlled territories.'

The decision, observers say, reflects the US administration's one-sided Middle East policy and its mindset that its goal is not Arab-Israel peace.

They fear that the recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan would not only be a setback to Arab-Israel peace process but may also lead annexation of West Bank in the times to come. Already members of the right-wing coalition headed by PM Netanyahu have been pushing for the annexation.

Syria, its allies, and its enemies have unequivocally condemned Trump's move. The Syrian government has vowed to retake the captured territory from Israel.

Israel is already acting with full military authority at the Golan, about 60 km south-west of the Syrian capital Damascus covering about 1,200 sq km, where 30 Israeli settlements with an estimated 20,000 people are living.

Israel had seized most of the Golan Heights from Syria towards the fag end of the 1967 Arab-Israel War and had also thwarted a Syrian attempt to recapture the region during the 1973 war.

Israel's parliament in 1981 passed legislation extending Israeli "law, jurisdiction, and administration" to the Golan, effectively annexing the territory. However, the international community did not recognise the Israeli action and maintained that the area was occupied by Syrian territory.

The UN Security Council Resolution 497 declared the Israeli decision "null and void and without international effect."

When President Barrack Obama was in office, the US voted in favour of a Security Council statement expressing deep concern over Netanyahu's declaration that Israeli would never relinquish the Golan.

There have been several unsuccessful attempts to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the Golan issue. In 2010 the Obama administration and Netanyahu secretly held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on a peace treaty involving Israeli withdrawal.

However, the initiative did not make any headway due to the Arab Spring spreading to Syria and Assad's decision to crush the rebellion.

Arab countries would have to work hard in their efforts for the return of the territories occupied by Israel. Many of them are more preoccupied with a perceived threat from Iran than with the Palestinian cause and have indicated their willingness to support on the yet to be announced Trump's Middle East policy. In the wake of this development, they would find it difficult to do so publicly.

Trump's decision may also become an obstacle in the way of any future negotiations between Syria and Israel as well as Israel and Palestinians.

By recognising Israel's sovereignty, president Trump has effectively endorsed the capture of the territory. After this, he has no moral authority to question those who do the same, such as Russia's annexation of Crimea.

(The author is a former Editor of PTI. He has also served as West Asia Correspondent for PTI, based in Bahrain from 1988 to 1995. Views expressed are personal)