Syria vowed to get back “every inch” of the Golan Heights from Israel in the aftermath of the United States recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the area.
“Syria will liberate the occupied Golan by all means, and all choices are on the table,” said the country’s foreign minister, Walid Muallem, on Thursday.
“U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision on the occupied Syrian Golan has a single effect, as it only enhanced the U.S. isolation,” he said. “Our right in the occupied Syrian Golan is firm and can’t be denied by the passage of time, and every inch of the occupied Syrian territories will be liberated.”
He added, “We have will and determination, and our war since 2011 is to protect Syria’s sovereignty and independence and to liberate every inch of its territories.”
U.K. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt on Monday said it was “a matter of the greatest regret that our allies, the United States, are in clear contravention of U.N. [Security Council] Resolution 497.”
The unanimously passed resolution in 1980 labeled that Israel’s annexation of the Golan as “null and void.”
“We should never recognize the annexation of territory by force,” said Hunt, acknowledging that Israel is “an ally and a shining example of democracy in a part of the world where that is not common.”
