[ Article mis en ligne 08/12/2024 13:09 | Mise à jour 08/12/2024 13:17 ]
The Lebanese army announced it was strengthening its presence on the border with Syria on Sunday, after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad and the capture of the capital Damascus by rebels.
“In the context of the rapid developments and delicate circumstances that the region is going through (…), the units responsible for monitoring the northern and eastern borders have been strengthened and stricter control measures have been put in place,” indicated in a press release the Lebanese army.
Lebanese authorities say they are welcoming some two million Syrians who fled the civil war that broke out in their country in 2011, the highest number of refugees per capita in the world. Nearly 800,000 are registered with the United Nations.
In Masnaa, the main cross-border crossing between the two countries, an AFP journalist saw dozens of cars of Syrians returning home, to the cheers of the crowd chanting anti-Assad slogans.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said he discussed the situation on the border with Syria in phone calls with army commander Joseph Aoun and security force chiefs. He stressed that the priority was to “strengthen control of the situation at the borders” and that Lebanon “stays away” from the “repercussions of developments in Syria”.
Israeli army says it is deploying in the Golan buffer zone
The Israeli army announced on Sunday that it had deployed in the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan, in southwest Syria, on the edge of the part of this plateau occupied and annexed by Israel.
“In light of developments in Syria and based on (…) the possibility of armed groups entering the buffer zone,” the army deployed forces there in “several key points necessary for defense in order to “ensure the security of the Golan Heights communities and Israeli citizens,” she said in a statement.
She added that she was “not intervening” in the events in Syria where rebel groups led by radical Islamists announced on Sunday the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime, after a dazzling offensive launched on November 27 across Syria.
Asked on Sunday about Lebanese media reports according to which an Israeli strike targeted an arms depot in the province of Qouneitra in the Golan Heights, an army spokesperson said he was not making “comments”.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had decided that classes in schools in four Druze localities in the northern Golan Heights would switch online, and declared some agricultural areas a military zone.
UN urged to seize opportunity to build a united, peaceful and inclusive Syria
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported a series of Israeli strikes on Sunday on army sites, including weapons depots, near Damascus, after rebels captured the capital.
“Israeli strikes targeted positions of the fourth division of the Syrian army near the Mazzé military airport, including weapons depots,” said the director of OSDH, a UK-based NGO and which has a vast network of sources in the country at war.
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The Golan Heights at the heart of the Israeli-Syrian conflict
Israel conquered part of the Golan from Syria during the Arab-Israeli war of 1967 before annexing this territory in 1981. This annexation is not recognized by the UN.
In 2014, the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDF) had to abandon its positions in the Syrian part of the Golan, when rebel groups and jihadists from the former Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda were seizing the area. The latter had gradually taken several areas of Qouneitra, including the passage between the Syrian part of the Golan and the part of the plateau occupied by Israel.
Forty-five Fijian UNDOF peacekeepers were taken hostage after fighting between the army and rebels before being released after two weeks.
(with agencies)
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