Israel will hold the Golan Heights forever, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed his views on stopping recognition of the claim.
In 2019, the then President of the United States separated Donald Trump from other powers in the world by recognizing Golan Heights as Israel. Israel captured the strategic plateau of Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and captured it in 1981.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
(Photo: EPA)
Blinken said Monday that he saw control of the Golan, which oversees northern Israel and also crosses Lebanon and Jordan, as “very important to Israel’s security” but that it was around its recognizing Israel ‘s sovereignty over the land.
“Legal issues are something else and over time, if the situation changes in Syria, that is something we will look at, but we are nowhere near that now,” Blinken told CNN.
He described the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad as well as the presence of Iranian-backed militias as a “major security threat” to Israel.
Biden’s advisers had previously said he would not withdraw US recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan.
IDF soldier at the Israeli-Syrian border in northern Golan Heights
(Photo: yoav zitun)
Information reporters Netanyahu said in response: “Look, they said they’re watching it – but I’ve already looked at it. As far as I’m concerned, the Golan Heights stay tuned to forever as part of the State of Israel, part of sovereignty. “
“What, should we return to Syria?” he said, noting the internal conflict in Israel’s long-standing enemy. “Should we return the Golan to a situation where massacre is a threat?”
Syria has long demanded the return of the Golan, and Israel’s unilateral connection to the region has not been accepted internationally.