Netanyahu Responds to Ahmed al-Sharaa Over the Golan Heights
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded sharply to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s remarks at the United Nations, in which al-Sharaa said Syria considers the Golan Heights Syrian territory and called on Israel to withdraw from the area and uphold the 1974 separation-of-forces agreement.
According to the remarks attributed to Netanyahu, he told al-Sharaa: “I want to tell al-Sharaa that these mountains belong to Israel. We were on this land since the time of the Prophet Moses, while you arrived as a refugee.”
The comments highlight the deep disagreement between Israel and Syria over the status and future of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war and later annexed in 1981—a move that the UN Security Council declared “null and void.”
Al-Sharaa has repeatedly called for Israel’s withdrawal from territory Syria says is occupied and for the restoration of the arrangements established under the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
Netanyahu’s remarks, if accurately reported, indicate that Israel continues to base its claim to the Golan Heights on historical, security and strategic arguments, while Syria maintains that the territory is Syrian and should be returned.
The dispute remains one of the most sensitive issues between Israel and Syria, with the two sides holding fundamentally different positions over sovereignty and the 1974 agreement.