Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa has said he told US president Donald Trump, as a joke, that if he wanted to give Israel land, he could give it New Jersey — because New Jersey belongs to Trump, but the Golan Heights belong to the Syrian people.
Speaking at a discussion on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, al-Sharaa said: “President Trump is someone who has stood by Syria, supported the country and made the historic decision to lift sanctions on Syria.”
“I respect him greatly and have a special relationship with him,” he said. Recalling the joke he made to Trump during a visit to the White House, al-Sharaa said: “I told him, if you are so keen to give Israel some land, why not give it New Jersey?”
New Jersey belongs to the Democrats, he added, because they do not vote for President Trump, so it would be good to give New Jersey to Israel.
Trump owns New Jersey, al-Sharaa said, but he does not own the Golan Heights. “Jokes aside, the point is that the Golan Heights belong to the people there. Neither a Syrian president nor a US president has the right to give it to anyone else.”
Israel has occupied most of the Golan Heights since the 1967 war. In 1981 Israel announced it was annexing the area, a move UN Security Council Resolution 497 declared “null and void”.
Most countries regard the Golan Heights as Syrian territory under Israeli military occupation. The United States, however, has recognised Israeli sovereignty over the area.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report