Colombia on Monday officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, becoming the second UN member state after the United States to do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
President Abelardo de la\u00a0Espriella, who was sworn in on Friday, has made bold moves to rebuild his country\u2019s relationship with Israel and reverse the policies of his predecessor, Gustavo Petro.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the persistent regional instability in the Middle East and considering the strategic importance of the Golan Heights to Israel\u2019s security, the government of Colombia recognizes Israel\u2019s sovereignty over this territory, as well as the state\u2019s right to defend itself against external threats,\u201d the Colombian\u00a0government said\u00a0in a statement on Monday\u00a0<\/p>\n
De la\u00a0Espriella\u00a0has pledged to restore diplomatic ties with Israel and\u00a0relocate\u00a0Colombia\u2019s embassy to Jerusalem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In announcing the Golan Heights position, Colombia cited decades of security threats facing Israel along its borders and said the dangers had intensified significantly in recent years, culminating in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this regional security context, Colombia recognizes that maintaining Israeli control and sovereignty over the Golan Heights constitutes an essential component of its national security and its ability to defend its citizens and safeguard their security,\u201d the government said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and extended Israeli law,\u00a0jurisdiction\u00a0and administration to the territory in 1981.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Most of the international community does not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar thanked De la\u00a0Espriella\u00a0for what he described as a \u201chistoric decision,\u201d which he said followed their meeting Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank Colombia and my good friend, the President of Colombia, Abelardo De La\u00a0Espriella, for his historic decision to recognize Israel\u2019s sovereignty over the Golan Heights,\u201d Sa\u2019ar wrote on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sa\u2019ar also thanked Colombian Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar: \u201cIsrael is a small country without strategic depth,\u201d Sa\u2019ar said. \u201cHaving defensible borders is essential for Israel in order to guarantee the existence of the Jewish people in its historic homeland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colombia on Monday officially recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, becoming the second UN member state after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-580761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}