The US State Department has changed its maps to show the disputed Golan Heights as Israeli territory, spokesperson Morgan Ortagus confirmed on Thursday, after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had received one of the updated versions.
“I know we have for sure we updated the maps,” Ortagus said when asked whether the State Department had taken such steps after President Donald Trump in March officially recognised the Golan Heights as part of Israel.
Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem earlier on Thursday that White House Senior Advisor Jared Kushner had given him one of the new maps, on which President Donald Trump had hand-written the word, “nice.”