KUMASI, Dec 15 (Futball Surgery)- Following what Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani said the group is not interested with conflict with Israel, Israeli airstrikes launched Saturday night hit dozens of sites in Syria overnight.
Israel troops are occupying the Golan Heights buffer zone with Syria since last week, a position the country’s defence minister Israel Katz has issued a statement to support that the country’s forces ‘should remain on Mount Hermon for the winter’.
“Due to what is happening in Syria, there is enormous security importance to our holding on the peak”, Katz’ office said in a statement.
On the other side, Syrian rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani told state media that he does not want war with Israel stating, “there is no excuses for any foreign intervention in Syria now after the Iranians have left. We are not in the process of engaging in a conflict with Israel.”
The Israeli defence minister’s statement was expected to be followed and happening with airstrikes, on Saturday night, to boost the country’s advances in Syria and hold onto Golan Heights buffer zone. It is yet to be ascertained the level of devastations in Syria specifically caused by Saturday’s airstrike.
According to reports, among the sites hit over the weekend were military headquarters, Syrian army positions, radars, and arms caches and assets of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which was responsible for developing advanced weapons.
The Syrian rebel group has ever wanted peace, stability, human freedom and transparency before and after the end of tyrant Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Before Saturday’s strikes, Jolani has accused Israel of using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, and if that strategy was to be continued would only worsen the needed stability in Syria. Jolani has said “diplomatic solutions” are the only way to ensure stability rather than “ill-considered military adventures”.
“Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region,” Jolani said in his interview with Syria state media.
“Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations. The priority at this stage is reconstruction and stability, not being drawn into disputes that could lead to further destruction.”
Just as concerns grow over devastations of the latest strikes in Syria, there have been interests on magnitude of airstrikes fired. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Israel fired 61 missiles at Syrian military sites in less than five hours on Saturday evening.
Israeli air raids hit bases, heavy weapons, sites associated with the former Assad regime’s missile and chemical weapons programme, and destroyed Syria’s small naval force in port of Latakia.
The continuing strikes have prompted mounting concern among diplomats and international officials concerned over what they fear may be an open-ended new occupation of Syrian territory.
The UN has called on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone, which sits between Syria and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, said he was “deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
France, Germany and Spain have also called on Israel to withdraw from the demilitarised zone.
The UN has said Israel is in violation of a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that established the buffer zone. Israel has said the 1974 disengagement agreement “collapsed” with the fall of the Assad regime government.
Israel estimates it has destroyed much of the Syrian air force’s infrastructure and aircraft.
The scale of the Israeli bombing campaign has surprised many western capitals, who had believed that any Israeli strikes would be limited to chemical weapons and missiles sites rather than an effort aimed at the wholesale destruction of the Syria’s military, which has had 70% of its capabilities destroyed in hundreds of attacks.
