A senior State Department official said in a conference call on Friday that he does not confirm or deny reports US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit the Golan Heights during his trip to Israel in the coming days
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th November, 2020) A senior State Department official said in a conference call on Friday that he does not confirm or deny reports US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit the Golan Heights during his trip to Israel in the coming days.
"I'm not going to confirm or deny beyond the countries that I said the Secretary was going to the individual locations where he's going to be stopping in those countries," the official said when asked to confirm reports Pompeo will visit the Golan Heights in the West Bank.
Pompeo is embarking on a trip to Europe and the Middle East on Friday with stops scheduled in France, Turkey, Georgia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. In Israel, Pompeo will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the implementation of the Abraham Accords and other security matters.
In November 2019, Pompeo announced that the United States no longer considered the construction of civilian settlements by Israel in the West Bank "inconsistent with international law," a reversal of the position held by the previous Obama administration.
The Golan Heights has been mostly under Israel's control since the country seized the area during the 1967 Six-Day War with neighboring Arab states. While Israel adopted a law that de facto annexed the territory in 1981, the United Nations declared that the move was void and without any legal effect.
