US envoy Tom Barrack retracts comment that Syria’s Golan is occupied

Ambassador to Turkiye says US policy of recognising Israel’s claimed sovereignty over Syrian territory is ‘unchanged’.

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Pro-Israel advocates criticised Tom Barrack for saying the UN considers the Golan to be Syrian territory [File: Evan Vucci/AP Photo]

By Al Jazeera Staff

Published On 23 Aug 202623 Aug 2026

United States Ambassador Tom Barrack has reasserted Washington’s position that Syria’s Golan Heights belongs to Israel after saying last week that the territory is occupied against “all of the international order”.

US President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Turkiye and envoy for Syria walked back that comment on Sunday, underscoring Trump’s policy of recognising Israel’s claimed sovereignty over the stretch of land in southern Syria.

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“United States policy on the Golan was set by President Trump in 2019 and is unchanged,” he told The Associated Press news agency in a statement.

Israel occupied the Golan during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the territory in 1981.

Until Trump backed the Israeli claim to the Syrian territory, no country had recognised the Golan as part of Israel.

The recognition sparked an international outcry. Legal experts warned that it could upend a core tenet of the post-World War II global order: the prohibition on acquiring land by force.

Former US President Joe Biden promoted the so-called rules-based order early in his tenure, but he failed to reverse Trump’s policy on the Golan during his four-year term.

Recently, Colombia’s right-wing government joined the US in backing Israel’s claim on the Golan.

In an interview with podcaster Mario Nawfal on Friday, Barrack appeared to acknowledge that the Golan is occupied Syrian land.

Barrack was asked whether Israel has plans to annex parts of southern Lebanon. He said regardless of intent, Israel knows that it would be difficult to claim Lebanese territory as its own.

“Saying that, in the Golan with Syria, they still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions, against all of the international order, which has said the Golan is Syria’s,” Barrack said.

Israel’s advocates were quick to criticise Barrack’s comment. Far-right commentator Laura Loomer called on the envoy to step down.

“He should resign for his lack of understanding of US foreign policy,” she wrote in a social media post, sharing Trump’s 2019 proclamation saying that the Golan belongs to Israel.

Republican Senator Rick Scott also criticised the ambassador, saying Barrack was confirmed by the Senate to enact Trump’s agenda.

“It seems the Ambassador forgot that or failed to do his research, so here’s a refresher for him,” Scott wrote in a social media post that included Trump’s executive order on the Golan Heights.

“President Trump has been CLEAR about Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights for years!”

Barrack had also been criticised for opposing Israeli air strikes on a Syrian airbase last week.

In his interview with Nawfal, Barrack suggested that the Israeli strikes in Syria were aimed at antagonising Turkiye, which is allied with the Syrian government.

“One theory is they were just baiting Turkiye, and it’s a very aggressive, but maybe well-received pre-election concept,” Barrack said, referring to US midterm elections in November.