Israel, the US and Russia have been attempting to further their interests in Syria in the wake of the fall of the Bashar Al-Assad regime.
Russia and the US have made diplomatic gestures towards the new de facto Syrian government, while Israel have deployed troops into the country and conducted hundreds of airstrikes against Syrian targets.
Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa said on Saturday Israel is using false pretexts to justify its ongoing attacks on Syria, but that he is not interested in engaging in new conflicts as the country focuses on rebuilding.
Sharaa – better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani – leads the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that swept Assad from power last week, ending the family’s five-decade iron-fisted rule.
Israel has since moved into a demilitarised zone inside Syria created after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, including the Syrian side of the strategic Mount Hermon that overlooks Damascus, where it took over an abandoned Syrian military post.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement that he was “deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
The UN has said Israel is in violation of a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that established the buffer zone.
Israel, which has said that it does not intend to stay there and calls the incursion into Syrian territory a limited and temporary measure to ensure border security.
Israel’s defence minister has instructed troops to prepare to stay for winter on the peak of Mount Hermon, which sits on the border between Syria, Lebanon and a UN demilitarised buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
Several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Jordan, condemned what they called Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone adjacent to occupied Golan Heights.
An aerial photo shows Syrian naval ships destroyed during an overnight Israeli attack on the port city of Latakia. The UN special envoy for Syria on December 10 called on Israel to halt its military movements and bombardments inside Syria. (Photo: Aaref Watad / AFP)The Israeli military said it has also conducted nearly 500 air strikes on Syrian military targets in Syria since the fall of the government of Bashar al-Assad and destroyed most of the Syrian Air Force, Navy, air defense, missiles and rockets.
The UN has said there is no basis in international law allowing such preemptive strikes.
“Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region,” Sharaa said in an interview published on the website of Syria TV, a pro-opposition channel.
“Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations. The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction.”
He also said diplomatic solutions were the only way to ensure security and stability and that “uncalculated military adventures” were not wanted.
The defaced portraits of toppled Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hang above an entrance to a building, reportedly used by the Russian Army, in the in the Syrian town of Al-Bassah in the Latakia province. (Photo: Aaref Watad / AFP)On Russia, whose military intervention almost a decade ago helped tip the balance in Assad’s favour and which gave asylum to the ousted leader earlier this week, Sharaa said that its relations with Syria should serve common interests.
“The current stage requires careful management of international relations,” he added.
Russia is pulling back its military from the front lines in northern Syria and from posts in the Alawite Mountains but is not leaving its two main bases in the country after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, four Syrian officials told Reuters.
Some equipment is being shipped back to Moscow as are very senior officers from Assad’s military but the aim at this stage is to regroup and redeploy as dictated by developments on the ground, a senior Syrian army officer in touch with the Russian military told Reuters.
A senior rebel official close to the new interim administration told Reuters the issue of the Russian military presence in Syria and past agreements between the Assad government and Moscow were not under discussion.
“It is a matter for future talks and the Syrian people will have the final say,” said the official, adding that Moscow had set up communication channels.
“Our forces are also now in close vicinity of the Russian bases in Latakia,” he added without elaborating.
The Kremlin has said Russia is in discussions with the new rulers of Syria over the bases. Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Reuters reporting.
A Russian source who spoke on condition of anonymity said discussions with the new rulers of Syria were ongoing and Russia was not withdrawing from its bases.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has wrapped up perhaps his last Middle East as America’s top diplomat, travelling with the aim of preventing Syria from spiraling out of control after the sudden ouster of President Bashar Assad.
Blinken was one of several senior US officials traveling across the region in the Biden administration’s final weeks amid deep uncertainty in Washington and abroad over how Donald Trump will approach the Mideast when he takes office on 20th of January, 2025.
Blinken held meetings Jordan, Turkey and Iraq with the aim of trying to shape the future of post-Assad Syria by forging consensus among regional partners and allies whose interests often diverge.
urkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan speaks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a meeting with the foreign ministers of the Arab Contact Group on Syria in Jordan’s southern Red Sea coastal city of Aqaba. (Photo: Aandrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP)“We know that what happens inside of Syria can have powerful consequences well beyond its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism,” he told reporters Saturday in Aqaba, Jordan. “And we know that we can’t underestimate the challenges of this moment.”
The primary goal of his 11 previous trips to the region since the Israel-Hamas war began in October 2023 was securing a ceasefire in Gaza that resulted in the release of remaining hostages.
Now, suddenly, that wasn’t his priority and was being handled by President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, who traveled to Israel, Egypt and Qatar this week. Blinken said he used his own meetings to press forward on a ceasefire deal.
Biden’s team is running out of time to cement a legacy in the Middle East after drawing widespread criticism that it turned a blind eye to Israel’s military conduct and its treatment of civilians in Gaza.
They did succeed in helping lead a push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that, while tenuous, is holding.
Blinken left Washington just three days after Assad fled for Russia, a longtime ally.
Blinken said his goal was to convince countries in the Mideast and elsewhere that they should commit to backing the U.S. view of how Syria should be run after decades of Assad family rule.
To that end, he said he had secured the backing of the 12 foreign ministers from the Arab League, Turkey and top officials from the European Union and United Nations who held an emergency meeting Saturday on Syria in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba.
They agreed that the new Syrian government should respect the rights of minorities and women, prevent terror groups from taking hold, ensure humanitarian aid reaches people in need, and secure and destroy any remaining Assad-era chemical weapons.
Blinken has promised that the United States, who has about 900 troops in the southeast of Syria, would recognize and support a new government that met those principles.
With wires
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