The decision of US President Donald Trump to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights is contrary to international law and directly affects the Lebanese interests, AMN reported referring to the Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

His remarks came during the meeting with Russian lower house speaker Vyacheslav Volodin in Moscow.

“Of course, this affects the immediate interests of Lebanon. We believe that the leader of a foreign state has no right to dispose of foreign territories like that. In addition, the move is fraught with the escalation of social tensions, not to mention the fact that such steps contradict international law and the decisions of the UN Security Council in the most blatant way,” he said.

As reported earlier, the signing ceremony took place on Monday at the White House as part of the talks between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Arab and Islamic world states, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, as well as key European states, including Germany and France, have previously spoken out against such unilateral actions.

The Golan Heights before 1967 were part of Syria. Two thirds of the heights were occupied by Israel during the Six Day War in early June 1967. In December 1981, the Israeli Parliament passed a law extending Israeli jurisdiction to the Golan Heights.

The UN Security Council did not recognize this decision. The UN General Assembly has repeatedly called the annexation illegal and called on Israel to return the Golan to the Syrians.

The Russian Foreign Ministry, in its turn, noted that the US decision on Golan may destabilize the Middle East.