Sa’ar confirms Israel hit chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria
Foreign minister says action taken to prevent strategic weapons systems from falling into hands of extremists
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed Monday that Israel had struck suspected chemical weapons sites and long-range rockets in Syria on Sunday, saying it did so in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile actors.
At a briefing for foreign media, Sa’ar stressed that Israel was acting as a precaution and that “the only interest we have is the security of Israel and its citizens.”
“That’s why we attacked strategic weapons systems, like, for example, remaining chemical weapons, or long-range missiles and rockets, in order that they not fall into the hands of extremists,” he said.
Sa’ar’s remarks came after Israeli Air Force fighter jets struck dozens of targets across Syria on Sunday, taking out weaponry that Israel feared could fall into the hands of hostile groups, in light of the dramatic fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Syria agreed to give up its chemical weapons stockpile in 2013, after the government was accused of launching an attack near Damascus that killed hundreds of people. However, it is widely believed to have kept some of the weapons and was accused of using them again in subsequent years.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, targeting what it says are military sites related to Iran and Hezbollah. Israeli officials have rarely commented on individual strikes.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would “destroy heavy strategic weapons throughout Syria, including surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets and coastal missiles.”
A senior Israeli official said airstrikes would persist in the coming days.
On Sunday, the Israeli military said it had sent ground forces into a demilitarized zone bordering Syria, a 400-square-kilometer (155-square-mile) buffer created by a 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement and overseen by the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
The presence of Israeli forces in what is Syrian territory is a “limited, temporary” step meant to ensure Israel’s security during the confusion after the fall of Assad, Sa’ar said at his press briefing.
The US also took advantage of the new reality in Syria, carrying out dozens of strikes on Islamic State targets in central Syria on Sunday.
A senior Biden administration officials told reporters that the US is working with Mideast allies to secure and destroy chemical weapons that belonged to the recently collapsed Assad regime in Syria.
“We are taking very prudent measures about this [and] doing everything we can to ensure that those materials are not available to anyone and are cared for… We want to make sure that chlorine or things that are far worse are destroyed or secured. There are several efforts in this regard with partners in the region,” the senior US official said in a briefing.
The official didn’t specify, which countries are involved in the effort.
Israel has watched the upheaval in Syria with a mixture of hope and concern, as it weighs the consequences of one of the most significant strategic shifts in the Middle East in years.
While Assad’s fall wiped out a bastion from which Israel’s arch-foe Iran had exercised influence in the region, the lightning advance of a disparate group of rebel forces with roots in the Islamist ideology of al-Qaeda poses risks.
Sa’ar spoke after Syrian rebels reached Damascus over the weekend and overthrew President Assad’s government, following nearly 14 years of civil war.
