The new leadership of Syria is ready to accept a United Nations peacekeeping contingent, which will be deployed on the border with Israel.
Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa stated this in a comment to Reuters.
According to him, the advance of the Israel Defense Forces units in southwestern Syria during and after the events of November-December 2024 was due to the presence of Iranian militants and members of the Hezbollah organization on Syrian territory.
"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, answering a Reuters question," al-Sharaa said.
Recall that in early December 2024, units of the Israeli army crossed the Syrian border and occupied the buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
The buffer zone was created in accordance with the 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Its area is 400 square kilometers.
In 1981, Israel unilaterally annexed this territory. This action of Jerusalem was not recognized by the international community. The exception is the United States, which in 2019 recognized the annexation of the Golan Heights.
However, not so long ago, the UN Security Council decided to extend the mandate and continue the peacekeeping mission in the region until June 30, 2025.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on January 2, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is ready to restore diplomatic relations with Syria.
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said during a meeting with the de facto leader of Syria, al-Sharaa, that Kyiv is ready to share with Damascus its experience in collecting evidence of war crimes.
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