TEL AVIV, KOMPAS.com – Prime Minister Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday (9/2/2021) that Golan Heights is the property of Israel forever after the opposite statement from the Minister of Foreign Affairs United States of America (AS) Antony Blink.
Earlier, the US Secretary of State made a statement that no longer recognized Israel’s claims to the Highlands Golan, as quoted from Arab News.
In 2019, the then US President, Donald Trump disagrees with the majority of other countries by recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel.
Also read: Israel Reveals King David’s Era Fortress in Occupied Golan Territory
Israel occupied strategic highlands in the 1967 war with Syria that and annexed it in 1981.
Blinken said Monday he saw control of the Golan, which faces northern Israel and also borders Lebanon and Jordan, as “very important to Israel’s security” but is careful to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territory.
“The legal question is another matter and as time goes by, if the situation in Syria changes, that is something we will consider. But, we are not getting there yet,” Blinken told CNN.
Also read: Israeli PM Named the Golan Settlements Trump’s Highlands
Netanyahu replied to the statement, “Look, they said they were considering it, but I did. As far as I know, the Golan Heights will forever be part of Israel, part of a sovereign state.”
“Should we return to Syria?” added Netanyahu, “Should we return the Golan to a situation where there was a dangerous massacre?”
Syria has long demanded that the Golan be returned and Israel’s annexation of the territory is not recognized internationally.
Also read: US State Department Map Enter the Golan Heights as Israeli Territory
Trump which signed a decree in March 2019, expressing support for Israeli sovereignty over the Syrian Golan Heights, which was annexed in 1981. A move the world has never recognized.
Syria at the time described Trump’s decision as a blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty.
Israel and Syria are still war apart de facto by a border on the Golan Heights, which Israel has annexed since the end of the 1967 6 Day war.
Also read: US Recognition of Israeli Sovereignty on the Golan, the Path to War
– .
