Netanyahu: Golan Heights will forever remain part of Israel

A new chapter opened yesterday in the Middle East with the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the outset of a press conference in Jerusalem, his first in 99 days.

Netanyahu highlights the billions of dollars Iran invested in keeping Assad in power and the regime’s cruelty against its citizens.

He calls Syria “a forward post of Iranian terror” and a weapons pipeline from Iran to Hezbollah.

Referencing Israel’s 1967 capture and subsequent annexation of the Golan Heights, Netanyahu says that “today, everyone understands the great importance of our presence there on the Golan, and not on the foothills of the Golan.”

He says Israel’s presence there guarantees its security and sovereignty, and thanks US President-elect Donald Trump for recognizing Israel’s annexation of the Golan in 2019.

“The Golan Heights will forever be an inseparable part of Israel,” he says.

Netanyahu repeats the claim that Assad’s fall is the “direct result of the heavy blows we landed on Hamas, on Hezbollah, and on Iran.”