New factor of tension in the Middle East. The advance of Israeli troops in Syria into the buffer zone on the edge of the part of the Golan Heights occupied and annexed by Israel constitutes “a violation” of the 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria, the Israeli Defense Minister said on Monday. UN spokesperson.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday that he had ordered the army to “take control” of this buffer zone after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. A “limited and temporary” measure taken for security reasons, assured its Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, however, affirmed on Monday that the part of the Syrian Golan occupied and annexed by Israel belonged to his country “for eternity”. “Today, everyone understands the capital importance of our presence on the Golan, and not at the foot of the Golan,” Benjamin Netanyahu said at a press conference in Jerusalem. “The Golan (which overlooks the hills of Galilee and Lake Tiberias in northern Israel) will be part of the State of Israel for eternity,” he added.
-The United Nations force responsible for observing the disengagement (UNDOF) can “confirm that the Israeli armed forces have entered the zone of separation, have moved in the area and remain present in at least three locations”, indicated Monday the UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, specifying that Israel had warned the peacekeepers of the entry of its troops.
In response, UNDOF “informed its Israeli counterparts that these actions would be a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement,” it added. “There must be no military forces or activities in the area of separation. And Israel and Syria must continue to implement the terms of the 1974 agreement and preserve the stability of the Golan,” he insisted.
Israel conquered part of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The demilitarized, UN-controlled buffer zone was created following an agreement to disengage Israeli and Syrian forces in 1974 after the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. Israel annexed the part of the Golan under its control in 1981.
