‘We won’t accept jihadists on our border,’ Israel tells Syrian rebels

The IDF has deployed troops in a region of southern Syria that was previously designated as a demilitarized zone.

By World Israel News Staff

As the IDF gears up for troops to remain in a former buffer zone for the foreseeable future, Israel has warned Syria’s new government that it will not tolerate the presence of radical Islamic extremists on its border.

While Israel is not in direct contact with the rebels, the country’s leaders are communicating with Syria’s emerging government via third parties, including the U.S., according to a Ynet report.

Jerusalem was said to have stressed that the Jewish state will neutralize any threat posed by armed extremists along its shared border with Syria.

Following the ouster of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad by Islamic rebel groups, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Syrian military infrastructure, arms depots, and chemical-weapons research facilities.

“I don’t know if we killed anyone, but we certainly smashed the weaponry of the Syrian army,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Wall Street Journal. “We don’t want all the stuff the Syrians amassed falling into the hands of the jihadists.”

The IDF has also deployed troops in a region of southern Syria that was previously designated as a demilitarized zone, including the former Syrian side of Mt. Hermon.

After the 1974 Yom Kippur War, an armistice agreement signed by Syria and Israel pledged that a swathe of land between the two countries would be free of any troop presence.

Although rebel leader Ahmed al-Shaara, who led the flash offensive that toppled Assad, has vowed to respect previous security agreements between Syria and Israel, Jerusalem has signaled that it is unwilling to maintain the buffer zone until the country’s internal affairs are stabilized.

Netanyahu has emphasized that the deployment of Israeli troops in the 155-mile buffer zone is “a temporary defensive position until a suitable arrangement is found.”

The premier added that Israel wants to “establish neighborly relations and peaceful relations with the new forces emerging in Syria.”