US envoy Tom Barrack retracts comment that Syria’s Golan is occupied

Ambassador to Turkiye says US policy of recognising Israel’s claimed sovereignty over Syrian territory is ‘unchanged’.United States Ambassador Tom Barrack has reasserted Washington’s position that Syria’s Golan Heights belongs to Israel after saying last week that the territory is occupied against “all of the international order”.US President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Turkiye and envoy for Syria walked back that comment on Sunday, underscoring Trump’s policy of recognising Israel’s claimed sovereignty over the stretch of land in southern Syria.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Trump has ‘run out of options’ in Iran war: Stephen Waltlist 2 of 3Palestinian teen killed in Israeli raid buried in Occupied West Banklist 3 of 3Gaza’s hospitals are running out of oxygen as healthcare nears collapseend of list“United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,” he told The Associated Press news agency in a statement.Israel occupied the Golan during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the territory in 1981.Until Trump backed the Israeli claim to the Syrian territory, no country had recognised the Golan as part of Israel.The recognition sparked an international outcry. Legal experts warned that it could upend a core tenet of the post-World War II global order: the prohibition on acquiring land by force.Former US President Joe Biden promoted the so-called rules-based order early in his tenure, but he failed to reverse Trump’s policy on the Golan during his four-year term.Recently, Colombia’s right-wing government joined the US in backing Israel’s claim on the Golan.In an interview with podcaster Mario Nawfal on Friday, Barrack appeared to acknowledge that the Golan is occupied Syrian land.Barrack was asked whether Israel has plans to annex parts of southern Lebanon. He said regardless of intent, Israel knows that it would be difficult to claim Lebanese territory as its own.