Qatar’s PM calls on Israeli forces to withdraw from Syria buffer zone

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, has demanded that Israel “immediately withdraw” its forces from the United Nations-established buffer zone with Syria after Israeli troops entered the area following the removal of Syria’s longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking on Thursday at a news conference in Damascus alongside de facto Syrian ruler Ahmed al-Sharaa, Sheikh Mohammed criticised Israeli moves to occupy the territory near the Golan Heights in southern Syria.v

“The Israeli occupation’s seizure of the buffer zone is a reckless … act, and it must immediately withdraw,” Sheikh Mohammed said.

Israel deployed military units last month to the buffer zone, which lies along the Golan Heights and separates Syria and Israel, after al-Assad was toppled by opposition fighters led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group. The area has been an officially designated demilitarised zone as part of a 1974 UN-brokered ceasefire.

As its troops encroached on the area, Israel also launched hundreds of air strikes across Syria. It said its air attacks were part of a campaign to stop weapons from landing in the hands of “extremists”, a term it has applied to several groups in Syria, including HTS.

“Israel’s advance in the region was due to the presence of Iranian militias and Hezbollah. After the liberation of Damascus, I believe that they have no presence at all. There are pretexts that Israel is using today to advance into the Syrian regions, into the buffer zone,” he said.

“Qatar no doubt has a big role to play. … They will play an active role in continuing to exercise pressure [on Israel to withdraw] together with Western and European nations and the United States of America,” he told reporters in Damascus.