Rebel leader Jolani says Israel has ‘no more excuses’ to strike in Syria; IDF chief responds: ‘We don’t interfere’
IDF Chief Halevi: ‘We have no intention of running Syria’
In his first official comments on the Israeli actions in Syria in recent days, the leader of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which expelled the Assad regime, Ahmad al-Shara, said he doesn’t want to get dragged into additional conflicts.
Al-Shara, better known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, told a Syrian TV channel that with Iranian forces having left Syria, Israel has “no more excuses to carry out airstrikes in Syria.”
After Syria's dictator, Bashar al-Assad, fled the country last Sunday, Israel embarked on a large-scale campaign to destroy large parts of the regime’s armed forces, including its chemical weapons, air defense systems, missile capabilities, as well as its Air Force and Navy.
Meanwhile, Army Radio reported Saturday that a new wave of Israeli strikes struck communications and electronic warfare sites across Syria overnight.
Additional documents we found at the site outside of Damascus. pic.twitter.com/ohLT0CJVya
— Trey Yingst (@TreyYingst) December 14, 2024
Al-Shara emphasized that Syria would not be dragged into additional conflicts that may lead to further destruction, vowing instead to focus on rebuilding the country after more than a decade of civil war.
“We are not about to enter into a conflict with Israel. Israel intended to invade Syria because of the Iranian presence there - but now it doesn't need to,” he said.
“What happened in Syria is a victory over the Iranian project which is dangerous for the entire region,” he said, adding that HTS was “able to end the Iranian presence in Syria, but we are not enemies of the Iranian people.”
The comments marked al-Shara's first direct response to Israeli actions in recent days. In addition to the airstrikes, IDF troops captured the demilitarized zone along the Golan Heights frontier, as well as several strategic points to the east of the zone, within sovereign Syrian territory.
Following al-Shara’s comments, the IDF released a statement by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Herzi Halevi.
Without directly referencing al-Shara, Halevi emphasized: “We do not interfere in what is happening in Syria and we have no intention of running Syria. We do absolutely intervene in what determines the security of the citizens of Israel, and we advanced to prevent terrorist elements from entrenching themselves close to our border.”
On Saturday, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem, for the first time, addressed the fall of Assad's regime. Hezbollah's troops, along with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other Iranian-backed terror proxies, had been among the regime’s most critical pillars of support over the past decade.
Qassem claimed his group had chosen to support the Assad regime to help “strengthen the capacities of the resistance across its territory towards Lebanon and Palestine.”
He expressed hope that the new Syrian government would refrain from normalizing relations with Israel.
“We can only judge the new forces when they take clear positions and the situation normalizes in Syria,” he said.
Qassem also acknowledged that “Hezbollah has lost the military supply route through Syria, but he said that this is a small detail that can change over time. This route can be restored with the new regime, just as we can find new ways.”
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The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
