Isreal Plans To Expand Golan Heights Settlements

Israel’s government has approved a plan to encourage the expansion of settlements in the occupied Golan Heights.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move was necessary because a “new front” had opened up on Israel’s border with Syria after the fall of the Assad regime to an Islamist-led rebel alliance.

Netanyahu said he wanted to double the population of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered illegally occupied under international law.

Israeli forces moved into a buffer zone separating the Golan Heights from Syria in the days following Assad’s departure, saying the change of control in Damascus meant ceasefire arrangements had “collapsed”.

Despite the move, Netanyahu said in a statement on Sunday evening that Israel has “no interest in a conflict with Syria”.
“We will determine Israeli policy regarding Syria according to the reality on the ground,” he said.

There are more than 30 Israeli settlements in the Golan Heights, which are home to an estimated 20,000 people. They are considered illegal under international law, which Israel disputes.

The settlers live alongside some 20,000 Syrians, most of them Druze Arabs who did not flee when the area came under Israeli control.

Netanyahu said Israel would “continue to hold on to [the territory], make it flourish and settle it”.

“The prime minster [Netanyahu] said we are not interested in expanding the confrontation with Syria and we hope we will not need to fight against the new rebels that are presently taking over Syria. So why do we do precisely the opposite?” he told the BBC World Service’s Newshour programme.

He added: “We have enough problems to deals with.”
Netanyahu’s announcement comes a day after Syria’s new de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa criticised Israel for its ongoing strikes on military targets in the country, which have reportedly targeted military facilities.

Al-Sharaa – also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani – said the strikes “crossed red lines” and risked escalating tensions in the region, though he said Syria was not seeking a conflict with any neighbouring state.

Speaking to Syria TV, which was seen as pro-opposition during the civil war, al-Sharaa said the country’s “war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations”, Reuters reported.

The groups are continuing to form a transitional government in Syria, of which al-Sharaa is the theoretical head.

On Saturday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington had made direct contact with HTS, which the US and other Western governments still designates as a terrorist organisation.

“We will hopefully see a quick end to sanctions so that we can see really rallying around building up Syria,” Pedersen said as he arrived in Damascus to meet Syria’s caretaker government and other officials.

BBC/Ejiofor Ezeifeoma