Benjamin Netanyahu says the Golan Heights will never be returned to Syria

Benjamin Netanyahu in the Golan Heights.
(Image credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP/Getty Images)

During a trip to the Golan Heights on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the region will "remain forever under Israeli sovereignty."

Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War, and in 1981, Israeli civil law was extended to the sparsely populated territory. With talks underway in Geneva about Syria's future, representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said they wanted to discuss returning the Golan Heights to Syria, The Washington Post reports, but Netanyahu said that's not an option. "The time has come after 40 years for the international community to finally recognize that the Golan Heights will remain forever under Israeli sovereignty," he said, adding that "the border will not change."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.