The leader of Syria’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that spearheaded the toppling of the Assad regime on Dec. 8 said on Monday that the rebel alliance in Damascus would continue to uphold the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement that ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
According to The New York Times account of an interview given in Arabic to a group of journalists, Ahmad al-Sharaa, better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, also called on the international community to ensure that Jerusalem follows the agreement, criticizing the Israeli military’s deployment to the demilitarized buffer zone on the Syrian border and other areas of Syrian territory.
He assured that it was no longer necessary for Israeli forces to be in the Syrian Golan Heights to protect the border zone, because the collapse of the Assad regime removed the threat from Hezbollah and other Iranian terror proxies.
Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israeli troops have taken up positions inside and beyond the buffer zone, including the strategic Syrian side of Mount Hermon. The Israeli Air Force has also conducted hundreds of strikes on Assad military assets.
Syria’s new leader said on Saturday that Israel’s “excuses have run out, and they have crossed the lines of engagement” for striking the deposed Assad regime’s military infrastructure, as well as for deploying troops to several demilitarized zones in the Syrian Golan Heights.
“The collapse of the Syrian regime created a vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone established by the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated on Dec. 12. “Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with Oct. 7-style attacks. That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border.”
However, the statement stressed, “This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”
