The ‘population development’ plan to increase the number of settlers only applies to the Golan Heights region that Israel occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in 1981, and does not apply to territory taken after al-Assad’s ouster.
advertisementIsrael’s Knesset has approved a plan to increase the number of settlers in the Golan Heights, which was recaptured from Syria in 1967.
The announcement comes after the dramatic fall of President Bashar al-Assad last week, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying a “new front” had opened in Syria close to the Israeli border.
The “population development” plan to increase the number of settlers applies only to the Golan Heights region that Israel occupied during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in 1981, and not to territory taken after al-Assad’s ouster.
Netanyahu praised the plan, which will see 40 million shekels (10 million euros) in funding aimed at doubling the region’s settler population.
Some 31,000 Israelis currently live across the Golan Heights in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
Israeli settlers live alongside about 20,000 Syrians, most of them Druze Arabs who did not leave the area when Israel fell.
But in a televised address Sunday night, Netanyahu said Israel was not pursuing conflict with Syria.
“We are not interested in a confrontation with Syria. We will determine Israel’s policy toward Syria based on the new realities on the ground,” he said.
“We remind you that Syria has been an active enemy of Israel for decades. It has repeatedly attacked us, allowed others to attack us from its territory, and allowed Iran to arm Hezbollah through its territory. I did it.”
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes across Syria since the rebel group led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) marched into Damascus on Sunday, ending al-Assad’s 24-year rule, and said it must destroy weapons depots to stop them. Yes. It falls into the hands of terrorists.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader and head of HTS, condemned the strikes, saying they “crossed a red line” and risked escalating tensions across the Middle East.
Criticism from Gulf countries
Israel’s proposal to increase the number of settlers in the Golan Heights has drawn criticism from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the proposal was “an attempt to sabotage opportunities for security and stability in Syria.”
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry called the plan “a new episode in a series of Israeli attacks on Syrian territory and blatant violations of international law.”
Separately, the Doha delegation is currently in Damascus ahead of Tuesday’s reopening of Qatar’s embassy in Syria, closed since 2011 due to al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters.
advertisementMeanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the British government was in ‘diplomatic contact’ with the HTS rebel group.
Lammy said that although HTS remains a banned terrorist organization, the UK “can have diplomatic contacts, so we can have diplomatic contacts”.
HTS was a direct affiliate of Al Qaeda when it was founded in 2011, and high-ranking figures from the so-called ‘Islamic State (IS)’ were involved in its establishment.
HTS later severed its links with both groups.
advertisementLammy’s announcement comes a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Jordan that Washington was in “direct contact” with HTS rebels and laid out principles for continued U.S. support for Syria’s political transition. It came out after a long time.
