Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
On December 9, Egypt accused Israel of illegally seizing a buffer zone in Syria. The area extends from the Golan Heights almost to the outskirts of Damascus. Israel troops and weaponry are now within hiking distance of the capital of Syria.
Syria is now under the administration of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed opposition group from Idlib, which had been supported prior to 2017 by a covert CIA program. President Trump cut the funding in 2017, but Turkish President Erdogan continued to support the group.
In the chaos after the fall of the Assad regime, Israel wasted no time to take advantage of the security lapse and invaded Syria from the Occupied Golan Heights towards Damascus.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said this was a temporary measure set up for defense of the Israeli border.
Egypt and the other Arab League member states are nervously watching as Israel takes advantage of the weakness and chaos in Syria to carry out yet another land grab.
Last summer, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's occupation of Palestine is in violation of international law. Now, Israel has added more occupied land in Syria to its long list of stolen territories.
The Israeli Defense Forces have also carried out airstrikes on December 9 across Syria, taking out air defense systems, missiles and military infrastructure. Currently, there is no national army existing in Syria. All facilities lay vacant as soldiers and officers fled following and during the fall of the Assad regime on December 8.
The Golan Heights were captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War. The United Nations recognizes the Golan as an Israeli occupied land which should be returned to Syria in a peace agreement between the two countries.
On March 25, 2019, President Donald Trump gave away the Golan to Israel, and officially recognized Israeli sovereignty. Netanyahu hailed the move by Trump as historic.
The United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the move was not recognized internationally.
Israel invaded Gaza following the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, and Israeli cabinet ministers have called for annexing Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. On October 1, 2024, Israel invaded the south of Lebanon.
In the absence of a legitimate government in Syria, and with Trump taking office next month, Israel may try to annex this new land grab in Syria.
Steven Sahiounie at MidEastDiscourse reached out to Andrey Ontikov, a Special Correspondent at Izvestia daily newspaper, in Moscow and a political commentator specializing in the Middle East.
#1. Steven Sahiounie (SS): Recently, Aleppo fell into the hands of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and later Hama and Damascus fell. In your opinion, how could a militia group be so powerful to oust the Syrian Arab Army?
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