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Netanyahu Says Israeli Troop Deployment in Syria Buffer Zone ‘Temporary’
An Israeli tank crosses the ceasefire line between Syria and the Israeli Golan Heights, Dec. 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Avi Ohayon
Israeli troops deployed to a buffer zone along the Syrian border will be there temporarily to prevent terrorists from launching attacks against Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.
“The collapse of the Syrian regime created a vacuum on Israel’s border and in the buffer zone established by the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
“Israel will not permit jihadi groups to fill that vacuum and threaten Israeli communities on the Golan Heights with Oct. 7-style attacks,” the statement continued, referring to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s invasion of the Jewish state from Gaza to the south last year. “That is why Israeli forces entered the buffer zone and took control of strategic sites near Israel’s border.”
Netanyahu’s office concluded, “This deployment is temporary until a force that is committed to the 1974 agreement can be established and security on our border can be guaranteed.”
Following the collapse of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s regime this past weekend, the Israeli military launched operations to eliminate much of Syria’s strategic weapons arsenal and secure the buffer zone along Israel’s northeastern border amid uncertainty about the future of Syria.
Assad fled Damascus on Sunday as a coalition of rebel groups stormed the capital, ending his family’s five-decade rule. The deposed leader, who has been accused of war crimes during his crackdown on rebel forces since 2011, was a partner of Russia and allied with Iran, which for years has used Syrian territory to send weapons to its terrorist proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon.
However, many Western observers have expressed concern about the leading Syrian rebel faction, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with Al Qaeda and which is designated a terrorist organization by the US, European Union, Turkey, and the UN.
This week, Israel conducted more than 350 aerial strikes targeting a wide range of military assets in Syria, with the aim of preventing them from falling into the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the military to establish full control over the once-demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, which was established under the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem that ended the Yom Kippur War. He also announced the establishment of a temporary demilitarized “defensive zone” beyond the buffer zone in southern Syria aimed to prevent terrorist threats.
Israel has denied claims that it has gone beyond these areas further into Syria. Netanyahu said on Tuesday that Israel has no intention of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs but would take action as needed to defend itself and ensure its security.
The Israeli premier expressed similar sentiments during an in-person meeting in Jerusalem on Thursday with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who was in the Middle East to discuss the situation in Syria and the prospects of a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
According to a readout from Netanyahu’s office, he “made it clear” during discussions with Sullivan that Israel “would do its utmost to defend its security against any and all threats; to this end, he ordered the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] to temporarily take control of the buffer zone in Syria, until there is an effective force that will enforce the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement.”
Netanyahu also “raised the issue of the vital need to assist the minorities in Syria and prevent terrorist activity against Israel from Syrian territory,” the readout stated.
The post Netanyahu Says Israeli Troop Deployment in Syria Buffer Zone ‘Temporary’ first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘With or Without Russia’s Help’: Iran Pledges to Block South Caucasus Route Opened Up By Peace Deal
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
i24 News – Iran will block the establishment of a US-backed transit corridor in the South Caucasus region with or without Moscow’s help, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader was quoted as saying on Saturday by the Iran International website, one day after the historic peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“Mr. Trump thinks the Caucasus is a piece of real estate he can lease for 99 years,” Ali Akbar Velayati said of the so-called Zangezur corridor, the establishment of which is stipulated in the peace deal unveiled on Friday by US President Donald Trump. The White House said the transit route would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
“This passage will not become a gateway for Trump’s mercenaries — it will become their graveyard,” the Khamenei advisor added.
Baku and Yerevan have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting or forcing almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
Yet that painful history was put to the side on Friday at the White House, as Trump oversaw a signing ceremony, flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The peace deal with Azerbaijan—a pro-Western ally of Israel—is expected to pull Armenia out of the Russian and Iranian sphere of influence and could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran.
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UK Police Arrest 150 at Protest for Banned Palestine Action Group
People holding signs sit during a rally organised by Defend Our Juries, challenging the British government’s proscription of “Palestine Action” under anti-terrorism laws, in Parliament Square, in London, Britain, August 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
London’s Metropolitan Police said on Saturday it had arrested 150 people at a protest against Britain’s decision to ban the group Palestine Action, adding it was making further arrests.
Officers made arrests after crowds, waving placards expressing support for the group, gathered in Parliament Square, the force said on X.
Protesters, some wearing black and white Palestinian scarves, chanted “shame on you” and “hands off Gaza,” and held signs such as “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action,” video taken by Reuters at the scene showed.
In July, British lawmakers banned Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation after some of its members broke into a Royal Air Force base and damaged planes in protest against Britain’s support for Israel.
The ban makes it a crime to be a member of the group, carrying a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, last week won a bid to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
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‘No Leniency’: Iran Announces Arrest of 20 ‘Zionist Agents’
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addresses a special session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, June 20, 2025. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
i24 News – Iranian authorities have in recent months arrested 20 people charged with being “Israeli Mossad operatives,” the judiciary said, adding that the Islamic regime will mete out the harshest punishments.
“The judiciary will show no leniency toward spies and agents of the Zionist regime, and with firm rulings, will make an example of them all,” spokesperson Asghar Jahangiri told Iranian media. However, it is understood that an unspecified number of detainees were released, apparently after the charges against them could not be substantiated.
The Islamic Republic was left reeling by a devastating 12-day war with Israel earlier in the summer that left a significant proportion of its military arsenal in ruins and dealt a serious setback to its uranium enrichment program. The fallout included an uptick in executions of Iranians convicted of spying for Israel, with at least eight death sentences carried out in recent months. Hit with international sanctions, the country is in dire economic straights, with frequent energy outages and skyrocketing unemployment.
In recent weeks Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi affirmed that Tehran cannot give up on its nuclear enrichment program even as it was severely damaged during the war.
“It is stopped because, yes, damages are serious and severe. But obviously we cannot give up of enrichment because it is an achievement of our own scientists. And now, more than that, it is a question of national pride,” the official told Fox News.