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President Donald Trump's decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty in the occupied Golan Heights is not a violation of UN resolutions but rather a recognition of "the reality on the ground", Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
Mr Trump billed his decision, announced in a tweet on Thursday, as being "of critical strategic and security importance" to Israel and for regional stability, a claim Mr Pompeo backed in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Saturday.
Speaking after a tour of the region that included stops in Kuwait, Israel and Lebanon, Mr Pompeo said the US was acting out of noble intentions.
"America is a force for good in the region. Our intentions are noble," he said. "We want good outcomes for the people of Lebanon, for the people of Kuwait, for the people of Israel, for all nations in the Middle East, and the decision the president made will increase the opportunity for there to be stability throughout the region."
Recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights would be a dramatic shift in US policy on the status of a disputed area that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, in a move not recognised by the international community.
Syria has asked the UN Security Council to uphold past resolutions demanding that Israel withdraw from the Golan. The issue is scheduled for discussion by the council on Wednesday, during a meeting on renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force deployed between Israel and Syria in the Golan.
Mr Pompeo dismissed the suggestion that Mr Trump's decision amounted to double standards, given that the US is imposing sanctions on Russia for its annexation of the Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014.
"Not at all," he said. "What the president did with the Golan Heights is recognise the reality on the ground and the security situation necessary for the protection of the Israeli state. It’s that simple."
Touching on the declaration of victory over ISIS by US-backed Syrian forces on Saturday after the recapture of its last patch of territory, Mr Pompeo said: "The threat’s not gone. The work continues. And America’s mission remains unchanged: we are determined to keep America safe from the threat from radical Islamic terrorism."
He said American troop deployments and tactics in the region would vary according to "conditions on the ground and the conditions in the region".
"We have lots of efforts ongoing all across the Middle East to ensure that those countries too have an opportunity to defeat terrorism in their own country as well. We have great partners in the region that we work well alongside and we’ve done good work together."
Mr Pompeo said his trip to Lebanon on Friday, his first as secretary of state, was to offer its leaders US support to counter Iran and its attempts to exert influence in the country, as well as the Tehran-backed Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
"They want to control this state; they want access to the Mediterranean; they want power and influence here. And the people of Lebanon deserve better than that," he said.
Asked whether countering Iran was part of the US mission in Syria, he said: "Everywhere we find malign activity by Iran, the United States is going to pursue it, whether that’s in South America, whether that’s in the Middle East."
Mr Trump billed his decision, announced in a tweet on Thursday, as being "of critical strategic and security importance" to Israel and for regional stability, a claim Mr Pompeo backed in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Saturday.
Speaking after a tour of the region that included stops in Kuwait, Israel and Lebanon, Mr Pompeo said the US was acting out of noble intentions.
"America is a force for good in the region. Our intentions are noble," he said. "We want good outcomes for the people of Lebanon, for the people of Kuwait, for the people of Israel, for all nations in the Middle East, and the decision the president made will increase the opportunity for there to be stability throughout the region."
Recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights would be a dramatic shift in US policy on the status of a disputed area that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, in a move not recognised by the international community.
Syria has asked the UN Security Council to uphold past resolutions demanding that Israel withdraw from the Golan. The issue is scheduled for discussion by the council on Wednesday, during a meeting on renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force deployed between Israel and Syria in the Golan.
Mr Pompeo dismissed the suggestion that Mr Trump's decision amounted to double standards, given that the US is imposing sanctions on Russia for its annexation of the Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014.
"Not at all," he said. "What the president did with the Golan Heights is recognise the reality on the ground and the security situation necessary for the protection of the Israeli state. It’s that simple."
Touching on the declaration of victory over ISIS by US-backed Syrian forces on Saturday after the recapture of its last patch of territory, Mr Pompeo said: "The threat’s not gone. The work continues. And America’s mission remains unchanged: we are determined to keep America safe from the threat from radical Islamic terrorism."
He said American troop deployments and tactics in the region would vary according to "conditions on the ground and the conditions in the region".
"We have lots of efforts ongoing all across the Middle East to ensure that those countries too have an opportunity to defeat terrorism in their own country as well. We have great partners in the region that we work well alongside and we’ve done good work together."
Mr Pompeo said his trip to Lebanon on Friday, his first as secretary of state, was to offer its leaders US support to counter Iran and its attempts to exert influence in the country, as well as the Tehran-backed Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah.
"They want to control this state; they want access to the Mediterranean; they want power and influence here. And the people of Lebanon deserve better than that," he said.
Asked whether countering Iran was part of the US mission in Syria, he said: "Everywhere we find malign activity by Iran, the United States is going to pursue it, whether that’s in South America, whether that’s in the Middle East."
