File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before leaving for Alabama to survey areas devastated by powerful tornadoes, in Washington D.C., the United States, on March 8, 2019. (Xinhua/Ting Shen)

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said that it is time for the United States to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which it seized from Syria in 1967.

In a sudden tweet, Trump said that "after 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's Sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the State of Israel and Regional Stability!"

Israel seized the land in a war in 1967 and annexed it in the 1980s, but the international community has never recognized the move.

In response to the statement that would mark a major change of U.S. policy on this issue, Israel's Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer tweeted "THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!"