Iraq rejects Trump's recognition of Israel's sovereignty over Syria's Golan

BAGHDAD, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraq rejected on Saturday the call of U.S. President Donald Trump to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said.

"Iraq strongly opposes the legitimization of the occupation of the Syrian Golan. The occupation is a crime against the security of humanity," Ahmed al-Sahaf, spokesman of the ministry, said in a statement.

"Iraq confirms that the passing of time does not give the current occupying authority any right or sovereignty over the occupied territories of the Syrian Golan, or the occupied Palestinian territories, in particular Jerusalem," the statement said.

Iraq calls upon the international community "to respect the rules of the international law, and to end the occupation of Arab territories, to accept the resolutions of international legitimacy issued by the United Nations," the statement added.

Trump on Thursday tweeted that the United States would recognize Israel's control of the Golan Heights, a strategic territory seized by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East war.