Netanyahu says Israel will stay in southern Syria ‘for foreseeable future’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that the military will remain in southern Syria for the foreseeable future, Anadolu Agency reports.

“In Syria, Israeli forces will remain stationed at the summit of Mount Hermon,” referring to Jabal al-Sheikh in the occupied Golan Heights.

“In the adjacent buffer zone, we will stay for the foreseeable future. We will not allow the presence of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham or any new Syrian military forces south of Damascus,” he said via satellite at a Washington conference hosted by the pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC.

Netanyahu further declared that “southern Syria will be a demilitarized zone.”

On Sunday, he called for the complete demilitarization of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Suweyda from the forces of the new Syrian army.

“We will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria,” he claimed, saying that the Israeli army will stay in Syria’s buffer zone and the Syrian Hermon Mount “Jabal al-Sheikh” for “an unlimited period of time.”

During the June 5, 1967 war, Israel occupied most of the Golan Heights in southwestern Syria, including parts of the slopes of Jabal al-Sheikh. In 1981, Israel unilaterally annexed the territory, a move not recognized by the UN.​​​​​​​

After the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December, Israel expanded its occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights by seizing the demilitarized buffer zone, a move that violated the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria.

Israel also took advantage of the Syrian regime’s fall to launch hundreds of airstrikes that targeted military sites across Syria, including fighter jets, missile systems and air defense installations, according to reports.

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