On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stopped short of supporting the recognition of the occupied Golan Heights as part of Israel by the Trump administration. He noted that that the area was necessary for the security of Israel.
According to the American "Al-Hurra" channel, Blinken said on Tuesday: “As a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security." “Legal questions are something else and overtime if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we look at, but we are nowhere near that.”
The U.S. Secretary of State confirmed the Biden administration’s commitment to maintaining the US embassy in Jerusalem after the Trump administration recognized the city as the capital of Israel, in a reversal of previous US policy.
When asked why Biden has not spoken with Netanyahu, Blinken said: “I’m sure that they’ll have occasion to speak in the near future.”
He added that the government of the Syrian regime, in addition to the presence of the Iranian-backed armed factions, constituted a "major security threat" to Israel.
In 2019, the former U.S. President granted formal US recognition of Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, in a major shift from a policy that the United States has followed for decades.
Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
Follow the latest news on Google News
