TEHRAN, Dec 9: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian condemned the presence of the Israeli army in Syria amid Bashar Assad’s departure from the post of head of the Syrian state and called on Middle Eastern countries to be vigilant regarding Israel’s steps concerning the peoples of this region, Pezeshkian’s office said in a statement.
Israeli state broadcaster Kan reported earlier that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Sunday had occupied the Syrian outpost on Mount Hermon after the Syrian army left its positions in the buffer zone. IDF spokesperson in Arabic, Avichai Edri, in turn, issued a warning, calling on residents of five border towns in southern Syria to remain in their homes and not go outside for safety reasons.
“He [Pezeshkian] categorically condemned the actions of the Zionist regime in violating Syrian territorial integrity. He also called on all Syrian parties as well as neighboring states to be vigilant about the Zionist regime’s misuse of the situation to further its expansionist and illegal policies regarding regional nations,” the Iranian president’s office said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said that the disengagement agreement with Syria in the Golan Heights, reached shortly after the 1973 Yom Kippur War, was no longer in effect because the Syrian military had abandoned its positions. The prime minister stressed that, together with the defence minister and with the full support of the cabinet, he had ordered the Israeli army to occupy the demarcation zone and the positions that control it.
Israel is actively strengthening its defence on the Golan Heights amid the fall of President Bashar Assad in Syria and the capture of a significant part of the country by armed opposition forces.
Syrian armed groups captured the national capital of Damascus on Sunday. Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali said that he and 18 other ministers had decided to remain in Damascus. Al-Jalali also said he had contacted the leaders of militant groups that entered the city. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Syrian President Bashar Assad had stepped down and left Syria after negotiations with some participants of the Syrian conflict.
On Sunday, December 8, a source in the Kremlin told RIA Novosti that Assad and members of his family had arrived in Moscow, and Russia had granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds. The source also noted that Russian officials were in contact with representatives of the armed Syrian opposition, whose leaders have guaranteed the security of Russian military bases and diplomatic institutions in Syria.
The Golan Heights were part of Syria until 1967. During the Six-Day War, Israeli troops occupied this territory, and following the Yom Kippur War (1973), the parties concluded an agreement on a truce and the separation of forces. In 1974, UN peacekeeping posts appeared on the Golan Heights. (UNI)
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