Trump's Middle East policy is putting oil on fire

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Editor's note: Hisham AbuBakr Metwally is the First Economist Researcher at the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry. The article reflects the author's opinion, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Since President Trump came to power, he has clearly been biased in favor of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian side and the Middle East countries.

Trump has broken all recognized international laws and United Nations resolutions on the occupation of territory by military action. For example, Trump recognized Israel's sovereignty over East Jerusalem in December 2017 and ordered the American embassy to be relocated to East Jerusalem in May 2018, followed by the decision on March 25 to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights.

Historically speaking, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip in Palestine, the Golan Heights in Syria and Sinai in the 1973 war during the so-called Six-Days War.

Security Council has made resolution No. 242 of November 1967, which provided for the non-acceptance of the seizure of land by war and called for Israel to withdraw its troops from the territories it occupied in this war which Israel has rejected till this day.

Golan Heights strategic location and source of water for Israel

The Golan Heights is of great strategic importance and is located in southwest Syria, about 60 kilometers from the Syrian capital Damascus, with an estimated total area of 1,860 square kilometers, with the area annexed by Israel at 1,200 square kilometers.

Cows graze in a grassy area near Mas'ada in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, March 26, 2019. /VCG Photo

The Golan Heights contains al-Sheikh Mountain which is located near the armistice line between Israel and Syria and is 2,800 meters high. The mountain has given Israel an excellent position to monitor any Syrian military action plus the geographical nature of the Golan Heights also served as a natural firewall for any Syrian military movement.

The Golan Heights is an important source of water for Israel and its rains feed the Jordan River and supply Israel with one-third of its water needs.

On December 14, 1981, the Israeli Knesset decided on the so-called "law of the Golan" the imposition of law, the judiciary and the Israeli administration on the Golan Heights and began to deal with the area as part of the Israeli Northern Province.

The international community has rejected the Israeli's resolution, with the United Nations Security Council passing resolution 497 on December 17, 1981, affirming that the seizure of territory by force was unacceptable under the Charter of the United Nations and considered Israel's decision to be null and void and without legal effectiveness at the international level.

Why did Trump dare to do what other American presidents didn't do?

Trump does not support the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their statehood and adopt a two-state solution as the basis for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict but prefers to impose a policy of unilateral reality based on America's economic and military power.

As the U.S. election nears, the U.S. president has been keen to garner the support of the American Jews, his great financial backing which is now a priority for Trump.

The current situation in the Middle East has encouraged President Trump to take these dangerous decisions since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 began the series of weakness and attrition of the Middle East and the aftermath of the Arab Spring revolutions that led to civil wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen.

All this led to a major power imbalance in the Middle East for the benefit of Israel, and the Gulf states have placed Iran as a first direct threat.

Iran has been able to expand its influence in the region, especially by deploying troops in Iraq and Syria and the control of the Houthi strong ally in Yemen and the presence of Hezbollah in Lebanon, which pushed the Gulf countries especially Saudi Arabia, to put the Iranian threat first at the expense of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The rest of the Arab countries have been occupied with their internal problems such as Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan, Jordan and Lebanon, which are suffering from economic problems and Algeria, which is experiencing problems in the devolution of power and other issues that have made it even harder for any strong stance against Trump's dangerous decisions.

Arab and global reactions to Trump's decisions

International consensus rejects Trump's decision in recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

The Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, in his statement, condemned the resolution as null and void and noted that the coming Arab summit on March 30 would be a chance for an appropriate response.

Russia also said that the U.S. move would cause more tension in the Middle East and pointed out that the resolution was a violation of international law. Turkey and Germany have said that they will not accept the U.S. decision, as well as the European Union, which said in its statement that the EU has not changed its policy and that it does not recognize Israel's sovereignty over the territories it occupied in 1967, including the Golan Heights.

Israeli military vehicles patrolling the border fence along the border with Syria. /VCG Photo

At the level of the Arab peoples, the situation of escalating anger as many demonstrations in Syria have emerged to denounce this decision, and the region on a volcano of anger to the unilateral policies of Trump in the region, may lead the region to a state of more instability and more terrorist operations, especially against American interests both in the Middle East and at the U.S.

Israel's superiority

Israel sees in Trump's successive resolutions a historic victory that has never been achieved.

The United States sponsored last February the Warsaw conference in Poland, which was held under the title of peace and security in the Middle East where the Arab countries participated with Israel together for the first time, openly intending to form an Arab-Israeli coalition to confront the Iranian threats in the region.

At the Palestinian side, Israel has not provided any solutions and has preferred to use force, the policy of fait accompli and the stranglehold on resistance, which will push the Palestinians to further resistance.

Finally, President Trump's unilateral decisions and the policy of fait accompli is the policy of crisis-making. On the opposite side, we find Chinese President Xi Jinping noting in his recent speech in Paris at the summit of the Global Governance Forum the importance of establishing pluralistic and just international governance.

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