'Golan Status Not Changed,' UN Chief Says in Rebuke to Trump's Move

World powers, Syria and the United Nations rebuked the United States' recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu official visit in the United States. 

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United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said it is "clear that the status of Golan has not changed," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Syria’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari, informed that Syria rejects and condemns the statements made by Donald Trump about the Golan.

Palestinian Foreign Ministry affirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements contradict international law and affirmed that the Golan is a Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967. 

Iraqi Ministry of foreign affairs' Spokesman, Ahmed al-Sahhaf, said in a statement quoted by Al-Sumaria News that Trump “gives legitimacy to the occupation and contravene international law.”

"No one could imagine that a person in America comes and gives the land of a nation to another occupying country, against international laws and conventions," President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait criticized Monday's move to recognize Israel's 1981 annexation and said the territory was occupied Arab land. 

"It will have significant negative effects on the peace process in the Middle East and the security and stability of the region," said a statement on Saudi state news agency SPA.

Israel seized the Golan strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed the territory in 1981, an action which was never recognized internationally. 

A United Nations Security Council resolution adopted unanimously by the 15-member body in 1981 declared that Israel's "decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect." It also demanded Israel rescind its decision. 

"The UN's policy on Golan is reflected in the relevant resolutions of the Security Council and that policy has not changed," Dujarric said.