Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and Iraq, said on Sunday that US policy recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory 'was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,' contradicting statements he made in a Friday interview in which he described Israel as occupying the area.
US envoy Barrack reverses Golan Heights remarks, says Trump-era policy unchanged
Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy to Syria and Iraq, said on Sunday that US policy recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory 'was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,' contradicting statements he made in a Friday interview in which he described Israel as occupying the area.
In the Friday interview with Mario Nawfal, Barrack said Israel 'still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions, against all of the international order, which has said the Golan is Syria's' — remarks that stood in tension with the US position in place since 2019.
Israel captured the Golan Heights in the Six-Day War and annexed the area by law in 1981. The UN Security Council passed resolution 497 shortly after, declaring the annexation 'null and void.' In 2019, then-President Trump recognized the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, as part of a series of pro-Israel moves that also included recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and relocating the US embassy there.
The Friday interview took place against the backdrop of an Israeli strike on the Abu al-Duhur military airfield in Idlib. Israel said Turkish troops were ready to deploy at the base; Turkey denied that claim.
During negotiations between Israel and Syrian officials held in Jordan on Sunday, the Syrian delegation asked to separate talks over the Golan Heights from other matters, appearing to prioritize the question of Israel's withdrawal from areas it captured after December 2024, when Ahmed al-Sharaa took power in Syria.
Barrack also condemned Israel's strikes on the Idlib airbase as 'serious and worrisome' and suggested in the Friday interview that the strike may have been intended to provoke a confrontation with Turkey, and that it could have had political motives given Israeli elections scheduled for October. He subsequently said the US would work to establish a deconfliction mechanism among Israel, Turkey, and Syria. 'Syria has demonstrated itself to be a responsible and stable sovereign neighbor, and a carefully structured de-escalation arrangement would contribute significantly to greater calm and predictability across the region,' Barrack told The Jerusalem Post.
- The source does not state what prompted Barrack to make the Friday remarks describing the Golan as occupied territory, nor whether they were a deliberate policy statement or a misstatement.
- The source does not state whether the US government issued any formal clarification or reprimand in connection with the Friday remarks.
- The source does not describe the outcome or any agreements reached during the Israel-Syria negotiations in Jordan on Sunday.
- The source does not state the specific areas Israel captured after December 2024 that the Syrian delegation sought to prioritize in negotiations.
- The source does not provide Israel's response to Barrack's characterization of its strike as potentially politically motivated or as 'serious and worrisome.'
Read the original at The Jerusalem Post