Arab League deplores Israel seizure of Syrian territory

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that under the initiative of Egypt and other Arab countries, the Arab League held a meeting on the level of the permanent delegates in its headquarters in Cairo to draft a unified Arab stance toward the Israel’s new occupation of more Syrian lands.

Immediately following the fall of the Bashar Assad government on Dec. 8, the Israeli army captured the buffer zone in Syria’s occupied Golan Heights, shortly after Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu announced the collapse of a UN-monitored disengagement agreement with Damascus.

The Israeli army mounted hundreds of airstrikes against military bases, air defense stations, and intelligence headquarters, as well as long- and short-range missile depots and unconventional weapon stockpiles across Syria.

The meeting resulted in the issuance of a resolution condemning the Israeli incursion into Syria’s buffer zone area and other adjacent areas including the Mount Hermon, according to the Egyptian statement.

The resolution considered the Israeli practices as “violation to the disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria in 1974”.

The statement also added that the Arab League urged the international community to compel Israel to abide by international legitimacy, especially UN resolution 497 of 1981, demanding Israel to withdraw from the occupied Golan Heights.

Since 1967, Israel has occupied the Golan Heights. In 1974, a disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria was signed, which defined the borders of the buffer zone and established a demilitarized area.

Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8 after armed groups seized control of Damascus. The takeover came after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) fighters captured key cities in a swift offensive that lasted less than two weeks.