Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The United States special envoy to Syria, Tom Barrack, has withdrawn remarks he made two days earlier that Israel ‘still’ occupies the Golan Heights in violation of UN resolutions, saying on Sunday that he was referring to the territory’s historical status and not changing US policy.
His clarification came after criticism that his earlier comments were at odds with President Donald Trump’s 2019 decision to recognise Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territory. Barrack also defended other recent remarks on Lebanon talks and on Israeli strikes in Syria.
advertisement
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in 1981. The United Nations and most of the international community consider it occupied Syrian land and do not recognise Israel’s annexation. In 2019, Trump recognised Israeli sovereignty over the territory, reversing decades of US policy.
In an interview on Friday with Lebanese-Australian entrepreneur Mario Nawfal, Barrack had said that Israel ‘still’ occupies the Golan Heights. On Sunday, he told The Associated Press that the remark was a description of the territory’s historical status, ‘not an endorsement of the United Nations’ position’ on the Golan.
‘United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,’ Barrack said in a statement to AP.
He said he had been trying to explain why he does not expect annexation in Lebanon, where Israeli forces are occupying parts of the south after the latest Israel-Hezbollah war. He said negotiated agreements are more durable than territorial maps, and that he had cited the Golan as an example that ‘territory taken by force remains contested for generations.’
In the Friday interview, Barrack also criticised Israel’s strikes on an airbase in northern Syria earlier last week. Israeli officials said the strikes were meant to prevent Turkiye from establishing a presence at the base.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz defended the strikes on X on Sunday. He said critics who had first called the operation ‘unnecessary and politically motivated’ changed their position after the government said the action was based on ‘clear intelligence’ and recommended by the Israeli army. He added that Israel would not allow Turkiye ‘to establish itself in Syria and threaten Israeli security.’
The strikes last Tuesday drew attention to growing tensions between Israel and Turkiye over Ankara’s increased influence in Syria after the fall of Bashar Assad. Turkiye and Syria have denied that Turkish forces were due to be deployed at the Abu Duhur base.
Barrack’s comments on the Golan also triggered a backlash in Washington. Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott wrote on X that the ambassador appeared to have ‘forgotten’ Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the territory.
On Sunday, Barrack also responded to criticism over his remarks on ongoing negotiations between Israel and Lebanon over Israeli withdrawal and the disarmament of Hezbollah. He had said, ‘there are two people missing from that table – Hezbollah and Iran’, prompting speculation that he meant Tehran and Hezbollah should join the US-backed talks.
Barrack stressed that the US does not negotiate with Hezbollah. He said he was pointing out that ‘the weapons in question are supplied and financed by Iran’, which makes negotiations over their future more difficult.
‘I was describing the difficulty of the problem, not proposing a new table,’ Barrack told AP. ‘Hezbollah is a designated foreign terrorist organisation. We do not negotiate with it, and nothing I said suggests otherwise.’
He also defended his remarks asking who would replace Tehran’s financial support for Shiite communities in southern Lebanon, saying that raising those questions was ‘not conferring standing on anyone’.
In sum, Barrack used Sunday’s statement to clarify that US policy on the Golan Heights remains unchanged, while also defending his comments on Lebanon talks and on regional tensions involving Israel, Syria and Turkiye.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
