Golan heights
US isolated at UN Security Council over Golan decision
Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move the 15-member UN Security Council declared 'null and...
The council is scheduled to discuss the latest crisis on Wednesday during a meeting on renewing the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force deployed between Israel and Syria in the Golan, known as UNDOF.
Donald Trump - who in 2017 took the even more momentous step of recognising disputed Jerusalem as Israel's capital - called the Golan declaration 'a long time in the making.'
President Donald Trump on Thursday said the United States should acknowledge Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1967.
Trump called the Golan - a strategic area seized from Syria and annexed in a move never recognised by the international community - "of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!"
The Syrian conflict erupted in 2011 and Russian intervention in 2015 helped to turn the tide in President Bashar al-Assad’s favour.
Syrian state media said, however, that a Syrian warplane had been targeted by Israel and hit while conducting raids in Syrian airspace.
Israel is on high alert as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regains ground from rebels in the southwest of the country, bringing his forces close to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
Tens of thousands of people have been sheltering at the frontier since the government offensive began one month ago.
Israel says it is neutral in the seven-year war but has carried out scores of air strikes in Syria on suspected Iranian targets, Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.
The prehistoric stone monument went unnoticed for centuries in a bare expanse of field on the Golan Heights.
The world body is working to secure their release, the United Nations said on Thursday.
Troops claim they destroyed an Israeli vehicle that crossed over into Syrian territory.
The UN is urged to act against Syria, which has sent tanks to the Golan Heights where peacekeepers are.