ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Regional countries on Tuesday joined arms in condemning Israel’s seizure of a UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights after Tel Aviv sent troops into the zone following Assad’s downfall.
Turkey accused Israel of an "occupying mentality”.
"We strongly condemn Israel's entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria," a foreign ministry statement said, adding: "In this sensitive period… Israel is once again displaying its occupying mentality.”
Iran condemned Israel’s incursion into the UN-patrolled buffer Zoe as a “violation” of the law.
"This aggression is a flagrant violation of the United Nations charter," foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in a statement published Monday night.
Saudi Arabia late on Monday described the Tel Aviv move as Israel’s "continued violation of the rules of international law, and its determination to sabotage Syria's chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity.”
Iraq, for its part, slammed the Tel Aviv move as a “blatant violation of international law."
Iraq "condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli entity's seizure of the buffer zone with the Syrian Arab Republic in the Golan and its neighboring lands and stresses that this action represents a blatant violation of international law,” read a statement by the Iraqi foreign ministry.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described their moves as a “limited and temporary step” for “security reasons.”
Since the collapse of the Assad regime, Israel has stepped up its military activities in Syria, conducting more than 300 airstrikes inside the country in the course of the past 48 hours, destroying the former Damascus regime’s military installations.
Israel’s flurry of airstrikes since the fall of Assad over the past two days is higher than the total number of attacks Israel conducted on the neighboring country since 2024 combined.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported they had documented 176 Israeli attacks on Syria in 2024 before the toppling of Assad, including 150 airstrikes, destroying "nearly 326 targets, including buildings, weapons and ammunition warehouses, headquarters, centers, and vehicles. These strikes killed 416 combatants and injured 286 others. "
Anti-government groups spearheaded by the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on Sunday took over the Syrian capital city of Damascus, after nearly a two-week offensive, sending Assad fleeing and ending over two decades of his rule and half a century of the Baath party rule in the country.
Soon after the fall of Assad, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the collapse of the Damascus regime as a “historic day for the Middle East” while cautioning that that regime’s downfall is “fraught with significant dangers.”
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