Thousands of Syrians have gathered in the streets of different cities to protest against President Donald Trump’s formal recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, according to state media.

The Sana news agency posted photographs of a march in the southern city of Sweida on Tuesday morning.

Men and women carried Syrian and Palestinian flags and banners reading Golan Is Syrian.

Trump US Israel
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump hold up the signed proclamation recognising Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)

Sana said another protest took place in the southern city of Daraa.

Mr Trump formally signed the proclamation alongside Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, reversing more than a half-century of US policy in the Middle East.

The US is the first country to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, which the rest of the international community regards as Israeli-occupied.

Ambassadors from the five EU members of the UN security council, France, Germany, Britain, Poland and Belgium, issued a joint statement saying that they do not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights which Israel occupied in 1967.

They said: “Annexation of territory by force is prohibited under international law”, and any unilateral border changes go against “the rules-based international order and the UN Charter”.