US envoy confirms Israeli occupation of Syria’s Golan Heights
Tom Barrack, the US president’s special envoy to Syria and Iraq, said the Syrian Golan Heights remain under Israeli occupation, describing the area as part of Syrian territory under international law and UN resolutions.
According to Mehr news agency, Barrack made the remarks in an interview with Clash Report, even though Donald Trump’s administration had recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights during his first term in 2019.
The report said the comments came as critics view Washington’s policies as aligned with Israel’s actions in the region. At the same time, Netanyahu has repeatedly stressed that Israel will not withdraw from the area.
The Golan Heights is a strategic region in southwestern Syria that Israel occupied in the 1967 war. It has remained a central point of dispute between Syria and Israel ever since.
Under UN resolutions, particularly Security Council Resolution 497 in 1981, Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights has been deemed invalid. In 2025, Asaad al-Shibani also called in a Security Council meeting for Israel to withdraw to the June 4, 1967 line.
