Syria will not shy away from using force to reconquer \u201cevery inch\u201d of the Golan Heights, the country\u2019s foreign minister threatened Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSyria will liberate the occupied Golan by all means and all choices are on the table,\u201d Walid Muallem said at a press conference in Damascus alongside his Venezuelan counterpart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUS President Donald Trump\u2019s decision on the occupied Syrian Golan has a single effect, as it only enhanced the US isolation,\u201d he said. \u201cOur right in the occupied Syrian Golan is firm and can\u2019t be denied by the passage of time, and every inch of the occupied Syrian territories will be liberated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\nOn March 25, Trump signed a presidential declaration formally recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan, standing alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel captured the strategically important high plateau during the 1967 Six Day Way and extended its laws over the territory in 1980, a move that was condemned at the time by the international community, including the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syria\u2019s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. (AFP PHOTO\/ANGELA WEISS)
\n\u201cWe have will and determination and our war since 2011 is to protect Syria\u2019s sovereignty and independence and to liberate every inch of its territories,\u201d Muallem said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur war on terrorism hasn\u2019t stopped and the conspiracy against us is continued through the military assault and the economic siege with the aim of prolonging the crisis in Syria in the interest of \u2018Israel,’\u201d he said, according to the state-owned SANA news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
US President Donald Trump (L) and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold up a Golan Heights proclamation outside the West Wing after a meeting at the White House on March 25, 2019, in Washington. (Brendan Smialowski\/AFP)
\nThe Syrian minister also chastised the Arab world for what he hinted was a weak response to Trump\u2019s Golan declaration, noting that London\u2019s condemnation was stronger than the one issued by the Arab League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIs it possible that the Arab Summit issues a statement on the occupied Syrian Golan that is weaker than Britain\u2019s stance?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Monday, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was \u201ca matter of the greatest regret that our allies, the United States, are in clear contravention of UN [Security Council] Resolution 497.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That resolution, passed unanimously in 1980, declared Israel\u2019s de facto annexation of the Golan \u201cnull and void.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe should never recognize the annexation of territory by force,\u201d Hunt said, noting, at the same time, that Israel in \u201can ally and a shining example of democracy in a part of the world where that is not common.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also on Thursday, protesters in several parts of Syria continued to take to the streets to demonstrate against the US recognition of the Golan as Israeli territory, SANA reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Syria will not shy away from using force to reconquer \u201cevery inch\u201d of the Golan Heights, the country\u2019s foreign minister threatened Thursday. \u201cSyria will liberate the occupied Golan by all means and all choices are on the table,\u201d Walid Muallem said at a press conference in Damascus alongside his Venezuelan counterpart. \u201cUS President Donald Trump\u2019s decision on the occupied Syrian… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/104"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3519,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3518\/revisions\/3519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/middleeastandnorthafricablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}