Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Monday, December 9, that the presence of Israeli forces in Syrian territory was a “limited, temporary” step meant to ensure Israel’s security during the confusion after the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Reuters reports.
Referring to Syria’s most powerful rebel leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani Saar said Israel considered many of the rebel leaders as having a dangerous and “extreme ideology of radical Islam” and Israel is hoping to head off any threat that could emerge in the fallout of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow.
Early on Sunday, the military said it had sent ground forces into the remilitarized zone, a 400-sq-km buffer created by a 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement and overseen by the U.N. Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).
Saar said minorities in Syria must be protected and attacks on Kurds must stop.
