Netanyahu instructs IOF to prepare stationing in Syria until late 2025

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
18 Dec 2024 16:05
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The Israeli premier says Israeli forces would remain stationed at the strategic Syrian Mount Hermon of the Golan Heights "until another solution ensuring Israel's security is found."

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd R) visits the peak of Hermon Mount (Jabal al-Sheikh) on the Syrian side of the border, on December 17, 2024 (Anadolu via AFP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has instructed the military to prepare to remain in the Syrian Mount Hermon area and the UN-patrolled buffer zone until at least the end of 2025, the Israeli Army Radio reported on Wednesday.

Israeli Security Minister Israel Katz said that Netanyahu conducted a security briefing on Tuesday atop the strategic Syrian Mount Hermon of the Golan Heights, which "Israel" occupied earlier this month.

"Israel" first captured the Syrian Golan Heights during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later "annexed" the territory in a move that has not been internationally recognized.

Netanyahu, Katz, and senior military and security officials visited "outposts at the summit of Mount Hermon for the first time since they were seized by the military," the Security Minister's office confirmed.

"The summit of Mount Hermon serves as Israel's eyes for identifying both near and distant threats," Katz emphasized.

Netanyahu’s office confirmed that the briefing took place on the "Hermon Ridge", where the Prime Minister reviewed the military’s deployment in the area and set future operational guidelines.

First sitting Israeli PM to set foot on Syrian soil

In a video statement from the summit, Netanyahu emphasized that Israeli forces would remain stationed there "until another solution ensuring Israel's security is found."

Israeli radio cited an Israeli official as saying that Netanyahu's visit to the Syrian part of Mount Hermon marked the first time a sitting Israeli Prime Minister has set foot on Syrian soil.

Netanyahu had ordered Israeli troops to occupy the buffer zone following the collapse of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deemed the Israeli move as a violation of the 1974 armistice that established the buffer zone to separate Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights after the previous year's Arab-Israeli war.

"Israel" claimed the move was "temporary" and "defensive", with Netanyahu saying it was a response to the "vacuum" created on the border and within the buffer zone.

The Israeli military also confirmed that its troops have also been operating beyond the buffer zone in Syrian-controlled territories.

Katz emphasized during the meeting the need to "complete preparations... for the possibility of a prolonged presence."

He further explained that Mount Hermon, home to the world’s highest UN observation post at 2,814 meters (9,232 feet) above sea level, provides critical "observation and deterrence" against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the new Syrian administration in Damascus who "claim to present a moderate front but are affiliated with the most extreme Islamist factions."

But in an exclusive interview for The Times on Monday, Ahmad al-Sharaa, the head of the Military Operations Administration in Syria, pledged that he would not allow the country to be used as a launchpad for attacks "against Israel or any other state."

Previously, al-Sharaa, also known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, affirmed that the new Syrian administration has "no intention of confronting Israel."

"We are not looking to engage in a conflict with Israel and cannot bear such a battle," he indicated.