France called on Israel to withdraw its troops from the buffer zone along the border with Syria, while Germany and Spain urged Jerusalem to show restraint during the transition period in its northern neighbor.
The French Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the Israel Defense Forces must pull back from the zone separating Syria from the Israeli Golan Heights, stating that “any military deployment in the separation zone between Israel and Syria is a violation of the disengagement agreement of 1974.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Sunday he had ordered the army to “seize” the demilitarized zone in the Syrian-controlled part of the Golan Heights as a defensive move after rebels swept Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.
“France calls on Israel to withdraw from the zone and to respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the foreign ministry spokesman said.
The area is patrolled by a UN peacekeeping force known as UNDOF, with the global body warning Israel on Monday that it is in breach of the 50-year-old deal that ended a 1973 war with Syria. 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 that it has taken “limited and temporary measures” solely to protect its security.
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Meanwhile, Germany’s foreign minister on Wednesday urged both Israel and Turkey not to jeopardize a peaceful transition in Syria after the ousting of Assad.
Opposition fighters celebrate as they burn down a military court in Damascus, Syria, December 8, 2024. (AP/Hussein Malla)
“We must not allow the internal Syrian dialogue process to be torpedoed from the outside,” Annalena Baerbock told a Berlin press conference. “Neighbors such as the Turkish and Israeli governments, which are asserting their security interests, must not jeopardize the process.”
Baerbock said Syria’s “new chapter” was still being written, adding that “the outcome of the revolution is not certain, nor have the people won the transition to a free and peaceful Syria.”
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“Syria must not be allowed to become a pawn in the hands of foreign powers or forces again,” she added.
Speaking on a trip to Jordan, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Wednesday that Israel’s strikes on weapons sites in Syria “can be understood as a measure for security.”
“Nobody really knows who will ultimately have control of the country,” Pistorius said. “The idea that gas weapons from Syrian factories could fall into the wrong hands and play a role in Islamist-motivated attacks somewhere in the world is an idea that would be unbearable.”
By the same token, he said, it was incumbent upon Israel not to “contribute to escalation.”
This aerial view shows the aftermath of an overnight strike attributed to Israel on the Barzeh scientific research center affiliated with the Syrian defense ministry in northern Damascus on December 10, 2024. (Omar Haj Kadour/AFP)
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Wednesday during talks in Madrid with his Lebanese counterpart that Syria’s territorial integrity must be preserved.
During his meeting with Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Sanchez “stressed the need for a peaceful and stable Syria, for the benefit of the Syrian people and all countries in the region, especially Lebanon,” the Spanish government said in a statement after the closed-door meeting.
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“He also called for an orderly political transition for the Syrian people while maintaining the territorial integrity of the country and avoiding further escalation in the region,” it added.
Also Wednesday, speaking to Reuters at a conference in New York, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Luis Albares urged all sides and neighboring countries, including Israel, to show restraint so as not to fragment or further destabilize Syria, “which would be no good for anyone, including Israel.”
And Moscow on Wednesday — a longtime ally of Assad — said that Israel’s activity in the buffer zone violated the 1974 treaty between Israel and Syria that ended the Yom Kippur war, calling Israeli air strikes on Syria a matter for serious concern.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing Israel’s actions did not serve to stabilize the situation in Syria and called on it to show restraint.