Sa’ar slams Turkish counterpart, defends Israel’s Syria buffer zone

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar slams his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, defending the buffer zone Israel’s military holds in Syrian territory and criticizing Turkey’s military activity in Syria.

Earlier in the day, Fidan had criticized Israel for its military presence in Syria.

“Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan accuses Israel of destabilizing Syria for taking the minimum measures necessary to protect Israeli citizens from attacks,” Sa’ar posts on X. “These are the same Turkish leaders who have spent decades violating the sovereignty of Syria while cynically lecturing others on international law.”

Sa’ar accuses Turkey, a former ally that has increasingly been seen in Jerusalem as a regional adversary, of wanting “to establish military bases inside Syria to undermine Israel’s security.”

The IDF has been deployed to nine army posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, to protect Israeli border communities and halt the cross-border flow of weapons to terror groups. The posts are mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries.

Syria has called on Israel to withdraw from its territory. Turkey also stations troops in Syria, but unlike Israeli forces, they are there with the consent of the Syrian government, a close ally of Turkey.

Sa’ar accuses Turkey of a variety of destabilizing activities, including attacks on Kurdish forces, its occupation of part of Cyprus, and human rights violations.

“What Minister Fidan wants is for Israel to stop protecting itself from threats to its security. This will not happen,” Sa’ar writes. “Israel will continue to take all measures necessary to defend its citizens against any threat.”