Syria slams Mike Pompeo’s visit to occupied Golan Heights as ‘provocative step’

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) quoted a source in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that Damascus condemns “in the strongest terms” the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Israeli settlements in the occupied Golan.

The source said that “Pompeo’s visit is a provocative step ahead of the end of the Trump administration’s term and a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic.”

Pompeo, during his first visit of its kind to the region, stressed his support to Israel, and strongly criticized international calls for the return of the Golan to Syria.

Pompeo expressed his condemnation of the calls issued by “salons in Europe and the elite institutions in America” ​​demanding that Israel return the occupied Golan since 1967 to Syria.

Israel began their occupation of the Golan Heights in 1967 after seizing the territory during the Six-Day War.

Another war would be fought over the lands in 1973; however, it would end with Israel in control of the areas west of Al-Quneitra.