Mogherini's remarks on Tuesday came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting for the first time in the occupied Golan Heights and ruled out returning them to Syria.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini

The top European diplomat said the EU does not recognize Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories after the 1967 war. “And this is a common consolidated position of the European Union and its member states,” she said.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights after the Six-Day War and illegally annexed the region in 1981, unanimously rejected the same year by the UN Security Council.

Tel Aviv has built tens of illegal settlements in the area since the annexation of the region. It has also used the occupied territory to carry out a number of military operations against the Syrian government.

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