BEIRUT, LEBANON (9:20 A.M.) – Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, said on Wednesday that Russia considers the visit of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the Golan Heights as a provocation.
Nebenzia said during the meeting of the UN Security Council: “We constantly call for preserving the unity of Syria and respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity. We call for abandoning plans to divide the country and prolong the conflict in it.”
He added: “This applies to both eastern and western Syria, including the occupied Syrian Golan, and the visit by a high-ranking US official is a provocation.”
Pompeo said during a visit to the occupied Golan Heights, that the region is part of Israel. “The idea that the Golan is part of Israel is an undeniable fact.”
Pompeo claimed that the return of the Golan Heights to Syria may expose the population of Israel and the West to risks.
Pompeo’s visit to an Israeli settlement in the West Bank or the Golan Heights is the first such visit by a US Secretary of State.
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