Syria’s de facto leader: Israel no longer has excuse to stay in buffer zone

In joint press conference with Qatari PM, Ahmed Al-Sharaa says Damascus will welcome presence of UN peacekeepers in demilitarized area between countries

This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) welcoming Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani in Damascus, Syria, January 16, 2025. (SANA/AFP)
This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria's new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) welcoming Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani in Damascus, Syria, January 16, 2025. (SANA/AFP)

Syria’s de facto leader said Israel no longer had any “excuse” to remain in the two countries’ buffer zone after Damascus rid itself of Iran’s presence, and stated that he would welcome United Nations peacekeepers there under the 1974 Israel-Syria disengagement agreement.

Ahmed Al-Sharaa was speaking to reporters in Damascus during a joint press conference Thursday with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who also condemned Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone.

Israel has said the seizure is temporary and necessary to prevent the border region from falling into the wrong hands amid the chaos and uncertainty in Syria after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

Though Sharaa’s comments appeared to show a hardened tone toward the Israeli incursion, his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadi group has not commented on an Israeli strike targeting a weapons convoy in southern Syria Wednesday that was said to have killed several people, including military officials of the new government.

“Israel’s advance in the region was due to the presence of Iranian militias and Hezbollah. After the liberation of Damascus, I believe that they have no presence at all. There are pretexts that Israel is using today to advance into the Syrian regions, into the buffer zone,” said Sharaa, whose HTS spearheaded the rebel forces that toppled Assad last month.

“We’ve notified international officials that Syria honors the terms of the 1974 agreement and is willing to accept UN peacekeepers to protect them,” he said. “Everyone knows the advance was a mistake and that [we] should go back to the way things were.”

Sharaa made similar comments soon after Israel moved into the area in December.

This handout picture released by the Syrian Arab News Agency SANA, shows Syria’s new leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) welcoming Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani in Damascus, Syria, January 16, 2025. (SANA / AFP)

Sharaa said his authorities were counting on the support of Qatar to help stop Israel from making any further advances into Syrian territory.

Qatar “supports this view and will use all means available to exert pressure on Israel” to withdraw, he added, hailing Qatar’s “central role” in that pressure.

For decades, the Syrian-Israeli border in the Golan Heights remained largely quiet under the 1974 agreement, which established a UN-patrolled demilitarized buffer zone between the two countries after they had fought in the Yom Kippur War.

Israel moved into the buffer zone shortly after Assad fell, saying that the deal was no longer in effect following the fall of Assad, and citing concern for national security. Sharaa, who has insisted he does not want conflict with Israel, said at the time that Israel has “no more excuses” for the incursion since Iranian forces had left Syria.

A truck pulls the head of the toppled statue of late Syrian president Hafez Assad through the streets of the captured central-west city of Hama on December 6, 2024. (Muhammad Haj Kadour/AFP)

Iran, which is openly committed to Israel’s destruction, had propped up the Assad regime since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. In that time, Assad let Syria become a conduit for arms shipments from Iran to its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah.

Sharaa’s latest criticism of the Israeli incursion came a day after his foreign minister, Asaad al-Shaibani, also told reporters in Ankara that Damascus was committed to the 1974 agreement but that Israel had to “respect Syria’s sovereignty.”

Speaking in Damascus Thursday, Al-Thani also said Israel “must immediately withdraw” from the buffer zone, assailing the “reckless” entry into the area.

The two men’s press conference marked al-Thani’s first visit to Syria since rebels overtook Damascus, ending the country’s long civil war.

IDF soldiers stand next to an armored vehicle before crossing the security fence, moving towards the so-called Alpha Line that separates the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights from Syria, in the town of Majdal Shams, December 20, 2024. (AP/Matias Delacroix)

Al-Thani pledged Qatar’s support to Syria’s rehabilitation effort, saying his country “extends its hand to our Syrian brothers for future partnerships.”

Unlike the other Arab countries that broke with Damascus at the start of the war, Qatar never renewed diplomatic relations with the Assad regime. Together with Turkey, it was also one of the first to back the armed rebels. Upon Assad’s ouster, Qatar was the second state to recognize the new Syrian government after Turkey.

Last week, Syria’s national electricity company said Qatar and Turkey would send power plant ships to increase supply after the United States eased some sanctions on Damascus. Meanwhile, a diplomatic source said Qatar was weighing a plan to provide Syria with funds after Damascus decided to increase public sector salaries.

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