Netanyahu: Israel won't allow Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces in southern Syria

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his regime will not tolerate the presence of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) nor any other forces affiliated with the Arab country's new rulers in southern Syria. 

Netanyahu said at a military graduation ceremony on Sunday that Israel will keep its positions there as a “defensive measure” and for as long as is necessary.

"We will not allow forces of the HTS or the new Syrian army to enter the territory south of Damascus. We demand full demilitarization of southern Syria, in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Sweida," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

The Israeli prime minister also said the regime's troops will remain stationed at a so-called “buffer zone” inside the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, seized following the fall of President Bashar al-Assad, 

Former al-Qaeda affiliate HTS took control of Damascus in early December in a stunning offensive, prompting a wary Israel to move forces into a UN-monitored demilitarized zone within Syria.

Militant factions, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, toppled Assad’s government on December 8 last year.

Following the downfall of Assad’s government, the Israeli military has been launching airstrikes against military installations, facilities, and arsenals belonging to Syria’s now-defunct army.

Israeli military aircraft on Tuesday launched a series of strikes against several weapons sites inside Syria in the latest act of aggression.

The Israeli military said that its unmanned aerial vehicles struck weapons which it said belonged to the former Syrian administration in the Sa'sa' district of Rif Dimashq province, located southwest of the capital Damascus and near the occupied Golan Heights.

‘Syria will not engage in conflict with Israel’: HTS chief breaks silence on Israeli assaults

Syria’s de-facto new ruler says that Syria will not engage in a conflict with Israel.

In the wake of the fall of Assad, Israel, which has occupied the Syrian Golan Heights since 1967, also invaded a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southwestern Syria, taking over the Syrian side of Mount Hermon, known as Jabal al-Shaykh in Arabic, as well as several Syrian towns and villages.

Israel has also come under scrutiny over the termination of the 1974 ceasefire agreement with Syria, and exploiting the chaos in the Arab nation following Assad’s downfall to make a land grab.

The occupying regime’s attacks have drawn widespread condemnation for violating Syria’s sovereignty and devastating assets belonging to the Arab nation.

Israel-engineered terrorism in Aleppo shows Syria's key role in Axis of Resistance

The pivotal role of Syria in the Axis of Resistance continues to thwart Israeli attempts to destabilize the region, which is why the regime is backing Takfiri terrorists in Aleppo.

Elsewhere in his Sunday remarks, the Israeli prime minister claimed he would not tolerate any threat to the Druze sect in southern Syria. 

Israeli media recently reported that the regime’s ministers had met to discuss a classified plot to promote the division of Syria after the fall of Assad's government.

Last month, regional security sources briefed on the plot were quoted as saying that Israel had already planned to divide Syria into three blocks and to establish military and strategic ties with the Kurds in Syria’s northeast and the Druze in the south, leaving Assad in power in Damascus.

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