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US President Donald Trump has signed a decree at the start of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu recognising Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights.

The Golan Heights is a territory that Israel seized from Syria in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

This move is expected to harm the peace process in the region as well as raise further questions about the US' impartiality as an international arbiter.

The president’s move is a fulfillment of a statement that he made on March 21, in which he announced that it was a convenient time for the United States “to fully recognise” Israeli sovereignty over the territory.

The recognition is anticipated to bolster Netanyahu’s election campaign weeks ahead of the April elections.

Syria and other states in the region had already condemned Trump's precipitating pledge, saying it violates international law.

France condemned Trump’s pledge.

“The Golan is a territory occupied by Israel since 1967. France does not recognise the Israeli annexation of 1981,” the French foreign ministry said in a daily briefing on 22 March, five days before today’s formal recognition.