Israel has taken more Syrian territory, justifying the incursion as a temporary move to protect its citizens but drawing a furious reaction in the region.
Defence minister Israel Katz on Monday said the country’s military was continuing to seize “high ground” inside Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Sunday by a group led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
The movement of tanks and infantry, which extended into and beyond a previously demilitarised buffer zone, was condemned “in the strongest possible terms” by Egypt, which said it amounted to the “occupation of Syrian land” and a “severe breach” of a 1974 armistice deal.
Regional powers are scrambling to respond to the stunning 12-day offensive by HTS, once an affiliate of al-Qaeda, which led disparate rebel factions to overthrow the Assad dynasty on Sunday.
A wide swath of the Israel-Syria frontier had been governed by the 1974 armistice agreement, including a significant UN peacekeeping force to monitor the pact.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting the border region on Sunday, said the agreement had “collapsed” after Syrian army units abandoned their positions, with Israeli forces taking them over “to ensure no hostile force embeds itself right next to the border of Israel”.
But, in a statement on Monday, the Egyptian foreign ministry said Israel’s recent actions had “exploited the . . . vacuum in Syria in order to occupy more Syrian land and to impose new facts on the ground in contravention of international law”.
It called on the UN Security Council and international powers to take a “firm position” towards “Israeli attacks” on Syria.
Other countries — both supporters and opponents of the toppled Assad regime — have also expressed concern that its fall could lead to further instability in the region.
Here are the top political news stories for today.
Recent events in Syria very likely would not have happened if the US had not prevented the Syrian military from attacking the Syrian "rebels" (i.e. HTS) several years ago. For instance, the first Trump administration threatened multiple times to militarily attack the Syrian government if they attacked the "rebel" stronghold of Idlib, even though Trump's special envoy on ISIS had called Idlib "the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11."
The Obama and Biden administrations (more so Obama, whose State Department essentially instigated the war at Israel'… Read more
@DinosaurPhilGreen1yr1Y
Why is it that so many Americans put Israel interest over our own?
I get politicians being blackmailed and bribed, but regular folk
Thank you for pointing this out - there’s far too many Trump supporters who think he’s actually against war. He’s just less overt in some situations that Obama and Biden have been, but he answers to the same people.
@8L2Q9M3Constitution1yr1Y
Syria is being liberated from its money. Shades of Baghdad 2003, and the same neocons are celebrating.
@D1plom4tXerusGreen1yr1Y
The problem here is there is so much excitement over removing the brutal dictator Assad but there is no plan to replace his government and restore law and order.
It’s literally becoming the next Libya where they spent 15 years trying to establish a stable government.
@8L2Q9M3Constitution1yr1Y
Wikileaks revealed internal memos that reveal some investigators didn't believe Assad used chemical weapons but that the report was made to smear him. Remembers lies told about Saddam's troops. Crooked war business as usual and a complicit press parroting nonsense.
Israel would never miss any chance of grabbing more lands.
You simply can't expect this.
Even the whole world isn't enough for them.
JAO, all capitals of Europe, USA, whole Middle East, Ukraine; never enough.
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