Geir O. Pedersen, the United Nations special envoy for Syria, has called on Israel to stop striking the country as it finds its feet after 50 years of Assad rule.
Rebel forces swept into the capital of Damascus on Sunday, ousting President Bashar al-Assad and taking control of the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday said he had ordered the military to “take control” of the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria.
On Monday, Israel said it struck Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities. It has also moved its troops into the buffer zone that separates the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria and ordered the creation of a “security zone” further inside Syrian territory.
UN warns Israel to stop strikes on Syria as Middle Eastern nations accuse Israel of exploiting Syria?s instability to execute a new land grab
The UN has confirmed that Israeli troops have entered the buffer zone and have been moving within that area, where they remain in at least three locations, according to the UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
The UN’s Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) told Israel its presence in the Syrian buffer zone would violate the 1974 Agreement on Disengagement with Syria, Dujarric said Monday.
Speaking at the United Nations in Geneva on Tuesday, Pedersen said “We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. This is extremely important.”
Also, Middle Eastern nations including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar have condemned Israel’s seizure of the buffer zone that separates the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria and accused it of taking advantage of the situation to take more land.
The moves “confirm Israel’s continued violation of the principles of international law and its determination to sabotage Syria’s chances of restoring its security, stability and territorial integrity,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.
The Arab League accused Israel of “taking advantage of the developments in the internal situation in Syria” while Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called it an “unacceptable escalation and an attack on the sovereignty of an Arab state.”
Qatar’s foreign ministry called the move “a serious escalation” and said Israel was “imposing realities” through land seizures, and Egypt’s foreign ministry said Israel’s actions “impose a new reality on the ground that contravenes international law.”
“Israel’s actions… constitute an exploitation of the state of fluidity and vacuum in Syria to occupy more Syrian territories,” the Egyptian foreign ministry said.