European Union rejections recognition of Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights, says EU won't follow US in changing policy on Golan.

The European Union will not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights despite the US decision to alter its policy vis-à-vis the strategic plateau, the EU’s foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini’s office said in a statement Wednesday.

“The position of the European Union as regards the status of the Golan Heights has not changed,” Mogherini’s office said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

The EU’s foreign affairs office cited two United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding the Six Day War and Israel’s annexation of the Golan in 1981.

In line with the international law and UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 497, the European Union does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.”

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed months after the 1967 Six Day War, calls for an unspecified “Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.”

Israel has pointed to the UN Security Council’s rejection of drafts calling for a withdrawal “from all territories” or “from the territories” and adoption of a version which does not specify the extent of the withdrawal as proof that the resolution does not require surrender of all territories taken in 1967.

The second resolution cited by the EU, United Nations Security Council Resolution 497, was passed in December 1981, declaring Israel’s Golan Heights Law, which effectively annexed the Golan, “null and void”.

Before this week, the US, like most foreign powers, had either explicitly rejected Israel’s annexation of the Golan, or declined to recognize it.

On Monday, however, President Donald Trump ended the decades-long policy of non-recognition, signing an executive order recognizing the two-thirds of the Golan Heights under Israeli control as Israeli sovereign territory.