U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that under current conditions he supports Israel controlling the Golan Heights, but appeared to question the legality of the Trump administration’s decision regarding the strategic plateau.
During his interview, Blinken was asked if the Biden administration would continue to "see the Golan Heights as part of Israel." "Look, leaving aside the legalities of that question, as a practical matter, the Golan is very important to Israel’s security," Blinken said.
"As long as Assad is in power in Syria, as long as Iran is present in Syria, militia groups backed by Iran, the Assad regime itself – all of these pose a significant security threat to Israel, and as a practical matter, the control of the Golan in that situation I think remains of real importance to Israel’s security," he told CNN.
However, he indicated that in the future U.S. could be open to reexamining that position. "Legal questions are something else. And over time, if the situation were to change in Syria, that’s something we’d look at. But we are nowhere near as that," Blinken said.
In 2019, then-U.S. President Donald Trump parted with other world powers by recognising the Golan Heights as Israeli. Israel occupied the strategic plateau in a 1967 war with Syria and annexed it in 1981.
