The UN Security Council rejected last week’s statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the Golan Heights would always remain under Israeli sovereignty, The Jerusalem Post reported.

On Tuesday, the UN Security Council in New York held a discussion on the matter and reiterated that position, which it adopted in Resolution 497, passed in 1981.

"The members recall Resolution 497 [which] decided that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect," the UNSC said.

A number of UNSC members had already criticized Netanyahu’s statement last week, which he made when the cabinet held its weekly meeting on the Golan Heights.

Source: MENA