{"id":20832,"date":"2020-11-20T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T12:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=20832"},"modified":"2020-11-20T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T12:12:10","slug":"al-syria-denounce-us-state-secretarys-visit-to-occupied-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/al-syria-denounce-us-state-secretarys-visit-to-occupied-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"AL, Syria Denounce US State Secretary\u2019s Visit to Occupied Lands"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"subtitle\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>TEHRAN (IQNA) \u2013 The Arab League and the government of Syria categorically condemned US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo&#8217;s visit to the occupied territories of Palestine in West Bank and the occupied portion of Syria\u2019s Golan Heights, describing it as a clear violation of international law.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"body ah_body\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"image_btn\" title=\"AL, Syria Denounce US State Secretary\u2019s Visit to Occupied Lands\" src=\"https:\/\/iqna.ir\/files\/en\/news\/2020\/11\/20\/64746_874.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"\" height=\"\" align=\"middle\" \/><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The assertion by the Arab League came on Thursday, after Pompeo became the first US secretary of state to visit the Israeli occupied Golan Heights after an unprecedented stop in the occupied West Bank.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Reacting to Pompeo\u2019s visit, which has also stirred strong opposition and wrath of various Palestinian factions, the Arab League issued a statement saying his trip to the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights is against the norms of international law.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Meanwhile, Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi said Pompeo\u2019s visit is aimed at setting another illegal precedent.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>She went on to say that Pompeo is \u201ctrespassing on Palestinian land stolen by Israel\u201d and \u201chas done enough damage\u201d.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and the resistance movement of Hamas had already decried the planned visit by Pompeo in the occupied West Bank.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Later on Thursday, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates strongly condemned Pompeo\u2019s visit to the Israel-occupied Golan Heights.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>An unnamed foreign ministry official said Syria condemns in the strongest terms the visit by the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Mike Pompeo, to the Israeli settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The official pointed out that &#8220;Pompeo&#8217;s visit is a provocative step before the end of the Trump administration&#8217;s term and a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic.&#8221;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The official added that such criminal visits encourage (Israel) to continue its dangerous aggressive approach, which would not have been possible without the unlimited and continuous support provided to it by the American administration.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The foreign ministry official said Syria expects the United Nations and the international community to condemn this visit, which violates UN resolutions, including Security Council Resolution 497, and defies the international outcry in opposition to Israel\u2019s decision to annex the Golan Heights, and the US decision to recognize this annexation.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Pompeo announced in a statement on Thursday that imports from settlements in the occupied West Bank should be labeled products of Israel.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, slammed the US labeling move as a violation of international law, Press TV reported.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>&#8220;The decision blatantly violates international law,&#8221; the spokesman said.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The decision, he said, is yet another biased, pro-Israeli move by President Donald Trump&#8217;s administration.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>A senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Wasel Abu Youssef, said Pompeo\u2019s labeling announcement reaffirms partnership between Trump and the occupying Israeli regime<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>In the news conference with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Pompeo also said the US will label the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians as \u201canti-Semitic\u201d.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>He said government support for any organizations taking part in BDS will be cut off \u2013 a step that could deny funding to Palestinian and international human rights groups.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The Israeli regime, meanwhile, has tasked its ministry of strategic affairs and public diplomacy &#8212; a body founded in 2006 that collaborates with Tel Aviv\u2019s interior ministry &#8212; to organize campaigns against the BDS movement.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>It issued a list back in 2018 consisting of nearly 20 international NGOs whose members would be denied entry into the Israeli-occupied territories. The list also included the UK-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign organization.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The outgoing Trump administration has broken with decades of bipartisan US practice by not opposing settlements in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds and the occupied West Bank.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>President-elect Joe Biden has said his administration will restore US opposition to the settlements which are considered illegal under international law.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Trump, who has lost the 2020 presidential election, has said the US is no longer considering Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank \u201cinconsistent\u201d with international law.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Trump himself has described the scheme as the \u201cdeal of the century.\u201d The deal envisions Jerusalem al-Quds as \u201cIsrael\u2019s undivided capital\u201d and allows the Tel Aviv regime to annex settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Jordan Valley.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The UN Security Council has condemned Israel\u2019s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Since Trump took office in December 2016, Israel has stepped up its settlement construction activities in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334, which has pronounced settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds \u201ca flagrant violation under international law.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel\u2019s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Palestinians, who have always been subjected to systematic violations of their rights at the hands of Israelis, have warned that Tel Aviv\u2019s actions will only get worse after normalizing ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain, in what is seen by Palestinians a betrayal of their cause.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>The UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan have normalized relations with the Tel Aviv regime. The Emirates claimed in August that its normalization pact would pause Israel\u2019s plans to annex Palestinian territory.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong>Israel annexed the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 in a move that is not recognized by the international community. However, in March 2019, Trump recognized the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights when he signed a decree alongside Netanyahu at the White House.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/Fava5Ifru8330dDMfhs0gn\">https:\/\/chat.whatsapp.com\/Fava5Ifru8330dDMfhs0gn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/wilayahh\">t.me\/wilayahh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TEHRAN (IQNA) \u2013 The Arab League and the government of Syria categorically condemned US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo&#8217;s visit to the occupied territories of Palestine in West Bank and the occupied portion of Syria\u2019s Golan Heights, describing it as a clear violation of international law. &nbsp; The assertion by the Arab League came on &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":20833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1478,1483,1482,1480,1481],"class_list":["post-20832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis","tag-islam_is_our_symbol","tag-no_to_trump_deal","tag-purposeful_lectures","tag-stay_at_home_to_be_safe","tag-the_zionist_mice-army"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20832"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20834,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20832\/revisions\/20834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}