Israeli Foreign Minister calls Israeli military presence in Syria temporary

The presence of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers in Syria is a temporary measure to ensure the security of the Jewish state, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on December 9.

"All our steps have one single goal - to ensure the security of Israel and its citizens. That is why we struck strategic sites containing chemical weapons and long-range missiles so that they would not fall into the hands of armed groups," he said at a press conference.

In the case of the Golan Heights, the minister said, IDF forces occupied a number of territories near the Israeli border to avoid a repeat of the events of October 7, 2023, when the country was attacked by the Palestinian Hamas movement.

Saar emphasized that this was a limited step that Tel Aviv took for security reasons.

In the next Syria: what awaits the republic after extremists take over Damascus

The family of President Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country, has been received by Russian Federation

On the eve of the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, after negotiations with the opposition, left the post of head of state and left the country, instructing to carry out the transfer of power peacefully.

On the same day, the national coalition of revolutionary and opposition forces in Syria said it was working on the formation of a transitional authority. In turn, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi al-Jalali said that most of the ministers of the Syrian government remain in Damascus, and he himself is ready to cooperate with any elected leadership.

Against this backdrop, the IDF announced the deployment of forces along the Syrian border to ensure the safety of communities in the Golan Heights and Israeli citizens. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the demarcation agreement with Syria has been terminated due to the withdrawal of Syrian troops. Later it was reported that the Israeli military took control of Mount Hermon.

The situation in Syria escalated as a result of a major attack by armed formations in Aleppo and Idlib, which began on November 28 and led to the Syrian army's retaliation against the militants.