Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the buffer zone inside the Syrian territories on Wednesday, November 19, alongside Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and other Israeli diplomatic, security, and military officials.
The visit was seen by many as a message directed to both the United States and Syria that Israel will never concede its interests inside the Syrian territories, should an Israeli-Syrian security deal be reached.
Analysts suggest that Netanyahu’s provocative move was triggered by the visit of Syria’s interim president, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, to Washington earlier this month, which showcased a patent rapprochement between his administration and the Trump administration.
It also came a couple of days after Israeli media outlets reported a stalemate in the negotiations between the Israeli government and the Syrian government to reach a security agreement.
Who is responsible for the deadlock in talks?
Israel’s rejection of Al-Sharaa’s demand for the withdrawal of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from all positions they occupied in Syria after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, is said to have led to the impasse in talks.
Media reports also indicated that Netanyahu’s government has set “the establishment of a demilitarized zone extending from the Syrian capital, Damascus, south to the Jordanian border, and eastward about 30 kilometers into the Hauran region, beyond the Daraa–Damascus highway”, as a condition for sealing the security deal.
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Moreover, Israel stipulates the opening of a land corridor linking the Israeli-controlled Golan with the villages inhabited by the Druze around the city and governorate of Sweida in southern Syria, on the pretext of protecting the Druze community and providing it with aid. This, in turn, would have further hindered the talks.
Netanyahu’s visit denounced as a violation of Syrian sovereignty
The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued a statement on Wednesday, strongly condemning the visit of Israeli officials to southern Syria as “unlawful”, and “a blatant violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
“The visit represents an attempt to impose a fait accompli, which contravenes relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the Ministry asserted.
It also reiterated Syria’s firm demand for “the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation from the Syrian territory”, and reaffirmed that “all the measures taken by the occupation in southern Syria are null and void, and have no legal effect under international law”.
The ministry urged the international community “to assume its responsibility by deterring the practices of the [Israeli] occupation, force it to fully withdraw from southern Syria, and comply with the 1974 Disengagement Agreement”.
For his part, the spokesperson for Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign and Expatriate Affairs, Fouad al-Majali, denounced the incident as an unacceptable, provocative escalation and a serious infringement on the sovereignty of an Arab state.
Arab Gulf states, including Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia slammed the move as well, considering it a“blatant violation” of Syrian territorial sovereignty and a “clear breach” of international law.
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