U.S. Position
In 1975, U.S. President Gerald Ford wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin stating that the U.S. had not developed a final position on the borders but once it had, it would give great weight to Israel's position that a peace agreement with Syria must be predicated on Israel remaining on the Golan Heights.
In 1991, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker told Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir that the United States would honor the position expressed in Ford's letter. William B. Quandt speculates that Baker told Syrian President Hafez al-Assad that the United States did not recognize Israel's annexation of the Golan and thought that UN Resolution 242 should apply there.
The United States considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held under Israeli occupation subject to negotiation and Israeli withdrawal. The United States considers the application of Israeli law to the Golan Heights to be a violation of international law, both the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and United Nations Security Council Resolution 242.
Read more about this topic: Golan Heights
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