U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday it was time to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, marking a dramatic shift in U.S. policy and giving a boost to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and regional stability!" Trump wrote on Twitter.
Netanyahu thanked Trump for the Golan Heights gesture. "You've made history," Netanyahu told Trump in a phone call after the announcement, according to Netanyahu's office.
"At a time when Iran seeks to use Syria as a platform to destroy Israel, President Trump boldly recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Thank you President Trump! @realDonaldTrump," Netanyahu wrote in a tweet.
Netanyahu has been pressing for the United States to recognize Israel's claim to sovereignty over the Golan Heights and raised that possibility in his first White House meeting with Trump in February 2017.
Israel captured the area from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. It gave back a small sliver of the land as part of a 1974 separation of forces agreement and annexed it in 1981.
The prime minister had been expected to raise the issue again with Trump during his visit to Washington, an Israeli official said.
