By Rachel Avraham
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently evaded a question asking if the United States will continue to recognize Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights: “As a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security. Legal questions are something else and over time if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we look at, but we are nowhere near that.”
Following this development, MK Ayoob Kara proclaimed: “If the United States does not continue to recognize Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights and drastically changes Trump’s Iran policy, Israel will have to consider building a stronger relationship with Russia and China. Till now, Israel has always considered American interests in relations to Russia and China. In the past, we even cancelled a major arms deal with China in order to appease the United States.”
“Yet if Biden reneges on America’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and signs a nuclear deal with Iran, a deal that endangers the existence and the security of the State of Israel, we must work to build stronger strategic ties to China and Russia, starting with the Haifa port deal,” he proclaimed. Israel recently refused an American request to inspect the new Chinese-built Haifa port, which will be operated for the next 25 years by SIPG, a Chinese company.
In a recent interview, Biden said “no” when asked if the US will lift sanctions on Iran in order to return to the negotiating table. However, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki denies that the US has changed its Iran policy: “Well, just to be very clear, the President never said that, exactly — it was stated by the interviewer … and he didn’t respond to the question. I think if we were announcing a major policy change, we would do it in a different way.”
