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Netanyahu said at a military graduation ceremony on Sunday that Israel will keep its positions there as a \u201cdefensive measure\u201d and for as long as is necessary, Press TV reported.<\/p>\n
“We will not allow forces of the HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus. We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria, in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Sweida,” Netanyahu was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
The Israeli prime minister also said the regime’s troops will remain stationed at a so-called \u201cbuffer zone\u201d inside the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, seized following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Former al-Qaeda affiliate HTS took control of Damascus in early December in a stunning offensive, prompting a wary Israel to move forces into a UN-monitored demilitarized zone within Syria.<\/p>\n
Militant factions, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, toppled Assad\u2019s government on December 8 last year.<\/p>\n
Following the downfall of Assad\u2019s government, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria\u2019s now-defunct army.<\/p>\n
Israeli military aircraft on Tuesday launched a series of strikes against several weapons sites inside Syria in the latest act of aggression.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said that its unmanned aerial vehicles struck weapons which it said belonged to the former Syrian administration in the Sa’sa’ district of Rif Dimashq province, located southwest of the capital Damascus and near the occupied Golan Heights.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the fall of Assad, Israel, which has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967, also invaded a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southwestern Syria, taking over the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, known as Jabal al-Shaykh in Arabic, as well as several Syrian towns and villages.<\/p>\n
Israel has also come under scrutiny over the termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria, and exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation following Assad\u2019s downfall to make a land grab.<\/p>\n
The occupying regime\u2019s attacks have drawn widespread condemnation for violating Syria\u2019s sovereignty and devastating assets belonging to the Arab nation.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in his Sunday remarks, the Israeli prime minister claimed he would not tolerate any threat to the Druze sect in southern Syria.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Israeli media recently reported that the regime\u2019s ministers had met to discuss a classified plot to promote the division of Syria after the fall of Assad’s government.<\/p>\n
According to the Press Tv report, Last month, regional security sources briefed on the plot were quoted as saying that Israel had already planned to divide Syria into three blocks and to establish military and strategic ties with the Kurds in Syria\u2019s northeast and the Druze in the south, leaving Assad in power in Damascus.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n