Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem says that Damascus will retake control of the Golan Heights from Israel, and that “all options are on the table.”
“Syria will liberate the occupied Golan by all means and all options are on the table, including a military operation,” Moallem says according to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem (L) and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza (R) at a joint press conference in Damascus, Syria on April 4. 2019. (SANA)
Moallem makes the remarks in response to US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights at a press conference in Damascus alongside visiting Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza.
“Our right in the occupied Syrian Golan is firm and it doesn’t change by the passage of time and every inch of the occupied Syrian territories will be liberated,” Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV quotes him as saying.
“Trump’s decision on occupied Syrian Golan has a single effect as it only enhanced the US isolation,” he adds.
Israel captured the strategic plateau from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War and in 1981 effectively annexed the area in a move never recognized by the international community, which considers the Golan Heights to be occupied Syrian territory.
Last month, Trump signed a proclamation formally recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, drawing sharp rebuke from allies and UN member states.
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