Iran Condemns Israel’s Cabinet Meeting in Golan Heights

The Tel Aviv regime on Sunday held the first cabinet meeting in the occupied Golan Heights to imply it will maintain its recalcitrant attitude not to return the annexed region to Syria.  

Jaberi Ansari described the move as “expansionistic”, and condemned the false claims repeatedly made by the Israeli regime about the area.

“Golan is an occupied territory belonging to Syria, and will be returned to the country sooner or later after an end to its occupation,” he stated.

The Iranian spokesman further referred to the move as a blatant violation of international rules and regulations, and called for the international community’s serious action against the expansionistic and provocative measures by the Zionist regime.

The Sunday meeting was held in defiance of international law that requires Israel to return Golan to Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the cabinet meeting blatantly said withdrawing from Golan is “in no way on the agenda, neither now nor in the future.”

“The time has come for the international community to recognize reality, especially two basic facts," said Netanyahu, as reported by CNN.

“One, whatever is beyond the border, the boundary itself will not change. Two, after 50 years, the time has come for the international community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain under Israel’s sovereignty permanently.”

Israel seized parts of the Golan Heights, a strategic, rocky plateau, from Syria in the 1967 Six Day War.

Syria unsuccessfully attempted to retake it during the 1973 Yom Kippur War, before Israel annexed the region in 1981 by extending its laws over the territory and its occupants.

The international community considers the Golan Heights to be occupied territory, and Israeli settlement-building there to be illegal.

Syria wants the return of the territory, which has been monitored by UN peacekeeping forces for decades.