Israel pushes US to accept claim over occupied Golan

JERUSALEM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday urged the U.S. to recognize what he called Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

"The time has come for the United States to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights," Netanyahu told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was visiting Jerusalem on Wednesday, according to media reports.

Last week Netanyahu claimed he had discovered work to establish a military base along the Golan Heights’ borders.

"Only last week we exposed Hezbollah's efforts, backed by Iranian funding, to establish a military base in Syria on the border of the Golan Heights," the Jerusalem Post quoted Netanyahu as saying.

"I think that for this and other reasons it is time for the U.S. to recognize Israel's presence in the Golan, which officially belongs to Israel," he claimed.

Pompeo did not respond to Netanyahu's suggestion, said the Jerusalem Post.

Pompeo and Netanyahu attended a meeting in Jerusalem with leaders from the Greek Cypriot administration and Greece on building a 2,000-kilometer gas pipeline planned to link vast eastern Mediterranean gas resources to Europe via a $7 billion project.

Pompeo’s visit to Jerusalem comes as part of a Mideast tour including Kuwait and Lebanon.