Update: US Ambassador Tom Barrack walked back the remarks he made on Friday. “United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,” he said in a statement to The Associated Press on Sunday.
The US Ambassador to Turkey said the Golan Heights should be returned to Syria. President Donald Trump recognized the territory as part of Israel.
Speaking with Mario Nawfal on Friday, Tom Barrack said, “In the Golan with Syria — they still occupy the Golan against the [United Nations] resolutions, against all of the international order which has said the Golan is Syria’s.”
In 1967, Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the Six-Day War. Damascus failed to reclaim its territory during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Then, in 1981, Tel Aviv annexed the Golan Heights and built several settlements in the territory, ignoring UN resolutions.
No other nation recognized the Golan as Israeli until 2019, when President Trump declared it was Israeli territory. Earlier this month, Colombia also recognized Israel’s claim.
After Syrian President Bashir al-Assad was overthrown in 2024, the IDF invaded the region surrounding the Golan, and the IDF has continued to expand its occupation of Syria slowly.
In the interview with Nawfal, Barrack said Israel was unlikely to continue its occupation of southern Lebanon. “No matter what they are doing. In the long run, I think they are looking and saying ‘that is probably unlikely that anybody is going to allow us to do that’. America’s support is waning. Even the young Democrats are coming against them,” he explained.
Barrack, who is also serving as the US envoy to Iraq and Syria, also discussed a recent Israeli airstrike in Idlib, Syria. He suggested the attack was a mistake despite top Israeli officials saying it was a threat to Turkey. He also warned Tel Aviv’s actions could have “unintended consequences.”
Barrack went on to say that the Israeli attack could have been intended to “bait” Turkey into an escalation ahead of the October elections in Israel.
