Syria rebel leader: We won’t become ‘launchpad for attacks’ on Israel; IDF must leave buffer zone

The head of the Syrian rebel group the led to the ouster of Bashar al-Assad argues that the emerging leadership won’t let Syria become a staging ground for attacks on Israel or other countries.

Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously went by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, also says in an interview with The Times, a British outlet, that Israel must stop bombing Syria and withdraw from the buffer zone between the countries which Israel seized after Assad’s fall.

Israel says the move is defensive and temporary until matters clear up in Syria amid the upheaval, arguing that a 1974 disengagement deal that created the demilitarized zone has collapsed since there’s nobody on the Syrian side to uphold it and that the move is aimed at preventing jihadists from taking over the area and threatening Israel.

“Israel’s justification was the presence of Hezbollah and Iranian militias, so that justification is gone,” al-Sharaa claims.

“We are committed to the 1974 agreement and we are prepared to return the UN [monitors],” he adds. “We do not want any conflict whether with Israel or anyone else and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks. The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions.”