An Israeli concern over Trump’s move to withdraw US forces from Syria
The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said on Tuesday that Israel is concerned over the US President Donald Trump’s intention to withdraw thousands of his country’s troops from Syria.
According to senior White House officials who conveyed a message to their Israeli counterparts, stating that President Trump intends to withdraw thousands of US troops from Syria.
The withdrawal of US forces from Syria will raise great concern in Tel Aviv, and it’s expected that this step will also affect the Kurds in Syria.
Trump is interested in withdrawing thousands of US troops currently in Syria, and this step raises concerns among the political and military leadership in Israel.
With no updated official announcement, there are conflicting figures regarding the actual number of US forces deployed in Syria, especially in the northeast, with estimates ranging between 1,100 and 2,000 soldiers.
Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz visited the occupied Syrian Mount Hermon region, announcing that the army wouldn’t withdraw from it after occupying it last month, and would remain there indefinitely.
Katz threatened, “We won’t allow hostile forces to be stationed in the security zone in southern Syria from here to the Sweida-Damascus axis, and we will act against any threat”.
Taking advantage of the Syrian factions’ overthrow of Bashar al Assad’s regime on December 8, Israel expanded its occupation of the Golan Heights by occupying the Syrian buffer zone in Mount Hermon.
On December 8, the Israeli army launched intensive air strikes that destroyed military sites, weapons and equipment in various parts of Syria, in a flagrant violation of its sovereignty.
Israel also announced the collapse of the 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria, and the deployment of its army in the demilitarized buffer zone in the Golan Heights, most of whose area it has occupied since 1967, in a move condemned by the United Nations and Arab countries.
