{"id":318959,"date":"2025-11-24T07:38:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T07:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=318959"},"modified":"2025-11-25T08:09:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T08:09:15","slug":"israeli-prime-minister-and-top-officials-visit-syria-buffer-zone-as-israel-syria-talks-stall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=318959","title":{"rendered":"Israeli prime minister and top officials visit Syria \u2018buffer zone\u2019 as Israel-Syria talks stall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seth Frantzman \u2013 The Long War Journal Nov 19, 2025<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u00a0led<\/a>\u00a0a large group of Israeli officials and military commanders to the\u00a0buffer<\/a>\u00a0zone between Israel and Syria on November 19. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) took control of the area after the regime of dictator Bashar al Assad fell on December 8, 2024. Israel\u2019s presence on Syrian soil has been a source of tension between the new Syrian transitional government and Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The visit took place two days after Israeli media outlets reported that talks\u00a0between<\/a>\u00a0Israel and Syria \u201cfor a landmark security deal are currently at a dead end.\u201d It also came nine days after Syrian transitional President Ahmad al Sharaa\u00a0met<\/a>\u00a0US President Donald Trump at the White House.<\/p>\n

Syria\u2019s foreign ministry\u00a0condemned<\/a>\u00a0the visit by Israeli leaders. Russia\u2019s ambassador to the UN also\u00a0condemned<\/a>\u00a0 Israel\u2019s actions on the Golan,\u00a0claiming<\/a>\u00a0that they pose a threat to the region.<\/p>\n

The visit to the buffer zone\u00a0included<\/a>\u00a0a large number of Israeli officials. The Israeli Government Press Office said in a statement that Netanyahu \u201cvisited the buffer zone in Syria, together with Defense Minister Israel Katz, Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar, IDF Chief-of-Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, [head of the Shin Bet] Director David Zini, National Security Council Acting Director Gil Reich, Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter, head of IDF Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Rafi Milo, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian, and IDF 210th Division Commander Brig.-Gen. Yair Pelai.\u201d The event appears to be the largest public visit by Israeli officials since the IDF took over areas of the buffer zone.<\/p>\n

On December 8, 2024, as the Assad regime collapsed, the IDF seized areas along the buffer zone that served as a ceasefire line between Syria and Israel since 1974. The line runs along the top of the Golan Heights, which the IDF took from Syria in 1967. The IDF also took control of the summit of Mount Hermon after Assad\u2019s fall. Previously, Israeli troops had controlled a lower peak near the top but not the summit, which was in Syrian hands. Syria and most of the international community do not recognize Israel\u2019s control of the Golan Heights or the new areas the IDF has taken over.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu \u201cwent to an IDF post where he observed the sector, and later held a security discussion. [He] also met with regular and reserve soldiers, praised their activity during the war and in maintaining security in the area, and answered their questions,\u201d Israel\u2019s Government Press Office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

On November 17, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe IDF will remain on Mount Hermon\u2019s peak and in the security zone.\u201d These comments came as reports\u00a0indicated<\/a>\u00a0that\u00a0talks<\/a>\u00a0between Syria and Israel about a security agreement had\u00a0stalled<\/a>. Netanyahu\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0that Israel\u2019s presence in Syria is of \u201cimmense importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The<\/em>\u00a0Times of Israel\u00a0<\/em>reported<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cIsrael is reportedly insisting on remaining deployed to the nine posts it seized after the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, unless the new ruling government agrees to a full peace deal and normalization.\u201d Sharaa had said in Washington on November 12 that Israel\u00a0should<\/a>\u00a0withdraw to the December 8\u00a0line, which is the 1974 ceasefire boundary.<\/p>\n

Netanyahu\u2019s visit to the buffer zone with Syria received significant\u00a0attention<\/a>\u00a0in Arabic media. Al Arabiya\u00a0noted<\/a>\u00a0that Netanyahu said, \u201cWe attach great importance to our capabilities here, both defensive and offensive, to protect our Druze allies, and above all to protect the State of Israel and its northern border opposite the Golan Heights.\u201d\u00a0Israeli officials have\u00a0vowed<\/a>\u00a0to protect the Druze in Syria over the last 10 months and carried out airstrikes on the new Syrian government when tensions between Damascus and the Druze rose.<\/p>\n

Tensions along the Golan border have reduced in recent months after IDF\u00a0raids<\/a>\u00a0in July detained Iranian-linked cells near the Golan. However, Russian military officials\u00a0visited<\/a>\u00a0an area of Syria near the Golan on November 17. Israeli media also said the IDF detained<\/a>\u00a0several suspects, including IDF soldiers and Syrians, who were reportedly involved in smuggling weapons from Syria.<\/p>\n

The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that \u201cSyria strongly condemned the illegal visit made by the Israeli occupation\u2019s Prime Minister, along with Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs and a number of occupation officials to the southern region of the Syrian Arab Republic.\u201d The Syrian Foreign Ministry\u00a0stated<\/a>, \u201cWe affirm that the visit represents a new attempt to impose a de facto situation that contradicts relevant UN Security Council resolutions and falls within the occupation\u2019s policies aimed at consolidating its aggression and continuing its violations of Syrian territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Step by step, Netanyahu is fulfilling plans for a \u2018Greater Israel\u2019. His recent visit to IDF troops in the Syrian \u2018buffer zone\u2019 confirms Netanyahu wants to consolidate his hold on parts of Syria, southern Lebanon and Gaza <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":318960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37,83],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies","category-syria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=318959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":318961,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318959\/revisions\/318961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/318960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=318959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=318959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=318959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}