Tuesday December 10, 2024

Arab statements come as Israel continues to step up strikes across Syria after ouster of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Qatar, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have decried Israel’s seizure of land in Syria near the occupied Golan Heights as the Israeli military continues to launch air strikes across the country.

The Qatari Foreign Ministry said on Monday that Doha considers the Israeli incursion “a dangerous development and a blatant attack on Syria’s sovereignty and unity as well as a flagrant violation of international law”.

“The policy of imposing a fait accompli pursued by the Israeli occupation, including its attempts to occupy Syrian territories, will lead the region to further violence and tension,” it added.

Israel started attacking Syria after the armed opposition in the country toppled the government of former President Bashar al-Assad early on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia slammed the Israeli moves on Monday, saying that they confirm “Israel’s continued violation of the rules of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity”.

The kingdom’s Foreign Ministry also called on the international community to denounce the Israeli campaign, stressing that the Golan Heights is an occupied Arab territory.

Baghdad echoed the criticism, saying Israel has committed a “grave violation under international law”.

Iraq “stresses the importance of maintaining Syria’s sovereignty and integrity and calls on the UN Security Council to uphold its responsibility and condemn this aggression … and put an end to it,” a statement by the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.

On Sunday, Israel quickly moved in and seized the buffer zone separating the occupied Golan Heights from Syrian-controlled areas. The Israeli military also warned Syrians living in five villages near the strategic area to “stay home”.

Israel occupied most of the Golan Heights in 1967 and illegally annexed the territory in 1981.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered Israeli forces to grab the buffer zone, established in a 1974 ceasefire with Syria, shortly after al-Assad was overthrown.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Netanyahu said the occupied Golan Heights would remain with Israel “for eternity”.

He also thanked US President-elect Donald Trump for recognising Israel’s claimed sovereignty over the territory during his first term. International law strictly prohibits the acquisition of land by force.

Netanyahu said the fall of al-Assad was “a direct result of the strong blows we have delivered to Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran”, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

Israel’s recent land grab was also slammed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who said the move constitutes “a violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria.

The UN peacekeeping force deployed in the Golan Heights, known as UNDOF, “informed the Israeli counterparts that these actions would constitute a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement”, Dujarric said. He added that the Israeli forces that entered the zone were still present in three locations.

‘More than 100 strikes’

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council that the deployment of soldiers into the area was “limited and temporary”.

“I addressed the Security Council and clarified that in response to the developing security threat on the Syrian-Israeli border and the danger it poses to our citizens, we have taken limited and temporary measures,” Ambassador Danny Danon wrote on X.

Beyond the land incursion, Israeli forces have been bombing targets across Syria since al-Assad’s ouster on Sunday.

The Reuters news agency quoted Syrian security forces as saying Israel bombed three airbases in Syria – sites near Damascus, Homs and Qamishli – on Monday.

Israel also launched attacks on military assets in the coastal city of Latakia, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military usually does not claim responsibility for attacks in Syria.

Israel conducted three air strikes in Damascus a day earlier against a security complex and a government research centre, two security sources said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said Israel launched more than 100 air strikes on military sites across the country on Monday.

Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the monitor, said the intensifying Israeli strikes aim “to destroy the former regime’s military capabilities”.