The White House rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to recognize Israel’s claim over the Golan Heights. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Obama administration will not accept Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal for American recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a senior White House official told Haaretz, following Netanyahu’s meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House earlier this week.

White House officials said that due to instability in Syria, changing the Golan Heights policy could cause complications in U.S.-Syria relations.

“I think that it was clear the U.S. is not going to change its position about the future of the Golan. We always said it has to be negotiated in line with [U.N. Security Council resolutions] 242 and 338. This has been and remains our position and it will not change,” one official stated.

Another White house official affirmed that changing the U.S. position on the Golan Heights could put the opposition in Syria in a “very awkward position,” and that “it will expose the opposition to regime accusations that they are allies with people who want to give up the Golan.”