Israel must respect intl. law, leave occupied Golan Heights: Jordan

Jordan has hit out at Zionist regime over its recent call for the United States to recognize the regime’s occupation of the Golan Heights, saying Tel Aviv will have to eventually pull its forces out of the Syrian region.

According to Press TV, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told a press conference with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Amman on Tuesday “The Golan Heights are occupied Syrian territory. International law is clear on that. It has to be treated as such.”

He then called on the Tel Aviv regime to leave the Golan Heights based on the 1974 Golan ceasefire deal with the Damascus government.

“Our position is that Israel needs to withdraw from that territory in the framework of a peace agreement,” Safadi said.

Just two days earlier, Zionist regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that Israel would “never leave the Golan Heights,” urging all countries to recognize the regime’s grip over the occupied territory. Netanyahu made the comments in a meeting with US National Security Adviser John Bolton in the occupied al-Quds.

In 1967, Zionist regime waged a full-scale war against Arab territories, during which it occupied a large swathe of Syria’s Golan and annexed it four years later, a move never recognized by the international community.

In 1973, another war, known as the Arab-Israeli War, broke out. A year later, a United Nations-brokered ceasefire came into force, according to which Tel Aviv and Damascus agreed to separate their troops and create a buffer zone in the Golan.

Zionist regime has over the past decades built dozens of settlements in the Golan Heights in defiance of international calls for the regime to stop its illegal construction activities.

Syria has repeatedly reaffirmed its sovereignty over the Golan Heights, saying the territory must be completely restored to its control.

ME