Baladi - Newspapers
The Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Thursday Israel will continue to act in Syria as it deems necessary for its national defense, without consideration for the international agreements now being discussed that would formally end the brutal eight-year civil war in the country.
“From the viewpoint of Israel, with all due respect and appreciation for the agreements and the understandings, they do not apply to us,” he said during a tour of the northern border.
Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who is backed by Iran and Russia, has largely taken back control over territories once held by opposition forces and the Islamic State terrorist organization, and is expected to soon launch a renewed offensive against the remaining rebel groups that are holed up in the area of Idlib in the country’s northwest.
Once Assad conquers that territory, the war, which began in 2011, will effectively come to an end. In preparation for this, a number of countries have begun negotiations for an agreement that would formally end the conflict, which is estimated to have killed approximately half a million people and displaced millions more.
“We see different gatherings in a variety of places — in Ankara, in Tehran, in Geneva, in other places — talking about redesigning Syria after the battle in Idlib,” Liberman said.
“The only thing that concerns us is the security interests of the State of Israel. Any other understandings or agreements that are reached in different places are irrelevant to us, and we will strictly enforce all previous agreements and Israel’s security interests,” he said, referring to the 1974 ceasefire accord between Israel and Syria, which places severe restrictions on the two countries’ military activities along the border.
Israel is both reinforcing its border barrier with Lebanon, setting up a large concrete wall in some places, and improving the defensive capabilities for border-adjacent communities.
“We’re looking to work on every aspect: evacuation routes, early-warning systems and, of course, bomb shelters,” Liberman said.
The Israeli defense minister added that once the initial improvements were made, he hoped to work to establish bomb shelters and protected areas next to every home and not suffice with public ones.
Source: Times of Israel