The leader of the Syrian Islamist rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), who spearheaded the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime, spoke Saturday about Israel for the first time since taking over the country.
In an interview with the Syrian TV news channel, Ahmad al-Sharaa, who is better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Julani, said that Israel has “no more excuses” to carry out airstrikes in Syria, and that recent IDF attacks on Syrian soil have crossed red lines and threaten an unjustified escalation in the region.
Earlier in the week, Israel launched a major operation to destroy the Syrian military’s strategic military capabilities, including chemical weapons sites, missiles, air defenses, air force and navy targets, in a bid to prevent them from falling into the hands of hostile elements.
In a move that has drawn some international condemnation, Israel also entered a United Nations-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights just hours after the rebels, led by HTS, took Damascus. Israel has said it will not become involved in the conflict in Syria and that its seizure of the buffer zone established in 1974 was a defensive move and a temporary one until it can guarantee security along the frontier.
The rebel leader called on the international community to assume its responsibility to avoid an escalation and guarantee the respecting of Syrian sovereignty. Without directly mentioning Israel, he further spoke of “diplomatic solutions” as the only way to ensure security and stability and as a preferable option to “ill-considered military adventures.”
In a video message to the new regime taking shape in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that the IDF bombed military strategic capabilities left by the Syrian military of the ousted Assad regime “so that they won’t fall into the hands of the jihadists.”
Netanyahu added that Israel was ready to establish relations with the new rulers but won’t hesitate to attack if they threaten the Jewish state or allow Iran to reestablish itself in Syria.
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