Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in 1967 in a move that was never recognised internationally

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The US will oppose for the first time a UN resolution that calls for Israel to end its occupation of the Golan Heights, in a symbolic move on an issue that Israel has been lobbying hard for since Donald Trump entered office.

How Trump's presidency has divided Jewish America Read more

Israel captured around 1,200 sq km (460 sq miles) of the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, and later effectively annexed it to international condemnation.

Washington had previously abstained from the “occupied Syrian Golan” resolution, which says Israel’s jurisdiction of the area is “null and void” and constitutes “a flagrant violation of international law”.

Sign up for the new US morning briefing

But the US envoy to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, announced on Thursday that the country would vote against the general assembly resolution, which is a non-binding motion voted on every year that is still likely to pass.

“The United States will no longer abstain when the United Nations engages in its useless annual vote on the Golan Heights,” she said in a statement. “If this resolution ever made sense, it surely does not today. The resolution is plainly biased against Israel.”

She argued against giving back Syrian control of the territory, saying “the atrocities the Syrian regime continues to commit prove its lack of fitness to govern anyone”.

US Mission to the UN (@USUN) The US will no longer abstain when the UN engages in its useless annual vote on the Golan Heights. The resolution is plainly biased against Israel; on Friday, we will vote no.

During close to two years in power, Trump’s administration has imposed key longstanding demands from Israel’s rightwing lobby that have been ignored by previous US governments.

These have most being seen as blocking Palestinian aspirations for statehood, including declaring the contested city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, shuttering Palestinian diplomatic offices in Washington, and closing its own consulate that serves the occupied West Bank and Gaza.

However, Israel has also been pressing US diplomats on other issues. In February, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had asked Trump to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The country has long coveted the territory and argues the instability caused by Syria’s civil war has bolstered its legitimacy there as a security buffer.

Thousands of Israelis have settled in the area, many promoting the region as a wine and tourism hotspot. Roughly 20,000 Arabic-speaking Druze, many of whom have relatives on the other side, also live there.

Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, said in August that a formal US endorsement of Israel’s control over the Golan Heights was not under discussion. However, David Friedman, Trump’s former personal lawyer and ambassador to Israel, said the next month that he expected Israel to keep the Golan Heights “forever”.

Following Haley’s statement, Israel’s public security minister, Gilad Erdan, called it “extremely important”.

Israel’s representative to the UN, Danny Danon, thanked Haley, saying the resolution was “despicable”.

“It is time the world distinguishes those who stabilise the region from those who sow terror,” he said, in a message that Haley retweeted.