“New Syria” and US-Israeli Interests

The inability of a “New Syria” to act against American interests and threaten the security of Israel are key outcomes sought by both Israel and Washington.

In this regards, all the factions in Syria have been given notice by America and Israel, that any threat to the existence and security of Israel will jeopardise the security, sovereignty and unity of Syria. This is the notice given to all the factions by US President Joe Biden in his first address since the HTS takeover in Damascus. Biden stated;

“It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country.. It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty. As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risk….We take a note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days, and they’re saying the right things now, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their word, but their actions (CNN 8/12/24).

Israel already made its move by seizing the buffer zone in the Golan Heights, which according to UN Resolution 338 belongs to Syria and was occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. This is in tandem with Israeli actions since the 1967 war, where it has argued that the holding of land was essential as a buffer for the security of Israel.

As a unilateral act and against international law, Donal Trump during his first presidency, endorsed Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights, with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claiming now that a 1974 buffer zone agreement had collapsed with the removal of the Asad regime with the Syrian military posts collapsing and hence necessitating a buffer zone for the security of Israel.. Netanyahu argued; ” “We will not allow any hostile force to establish itself on our border,” (Al Jazeera 8/12/24).

Israel then moved to violate Syrian sovereignty by attacking Syrian military capabilities under the pretext of them falling into “extremist hands”. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the military would “destroy heavy strategic weapons throughout Syria, including surface-to-air missiles, air defense systems, surface-to-surface missiles, cruise missiles, long-range rockets, and coastal missiles.” (Al Arabiya 09/12/21).

The UK based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SORH) reported this morning that, “Since the initial hours after the announcement of the fall of the former regime, Israel began launching intensive air strikes, deliberately destroying weapons and ammunition depots”. The targets of the overnight strikes included “air defense weapons depots and ammunition depots,” belonging to the Syrian military in the coastal Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Israel also launched strikes in the country’s south targeting Tal al-Hara near the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights, and military positions in Izraa, in Daraa province.

Further Israeli strikes destroyed warehouses holding “anti-tank weapons” in the Qalamoun area in the Damascus countryside. SORH also said Israel on Sunday “bombed former military sites” in southern Syria’s Quneitra province. It also said “ground forces penetrated…and took control of former regime force observation points” in the Mount Hermon area, further north closer to the Lebanese border” (SORH 9/12/24).

So, who are these “stakeholders” and “partners” that Biden is referring to that will work with the US to secure her interests and Israel. These are amongst the countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Egypt and Jordan, who have been at the forefront of making sure that their populations have been tempered and militaries kept in their barracks, even to protect the civilians against the genocide by Israel, let alone military action against Israel itself whilst she humiliates the regional countries and violates their sovereignty at will. Even now when Israel continues to attack Syrian military sites and takes over territory in the Golan, there is not a single mutter from these governments.

The function of these countries is simply to further and protect US interests, core to which is protecting Israel. They will do this by moulding the various factions and manipulating them through financial means in the sense of holding the purse strings for Syria’s reconstruction as well as guaranteeing the unity and security of the factions as long as they capitulate to US interests and the protection of Israel.

Consequently, building upon an offer by Saudi Arabia to revive the Abraham Accords, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid pounced on the opportunity to promote a collaboration with the regional countries within the framework of the Accords. Lapid stated on his X account;

“In the face of events in Syria, it is more important than ever to create a strong regional coalition, with Saudi Arabia and the Abraham Accords countries, in order to deal together with regional instability…The Iranian axis has weakened significantly, and Israel needs to strive for a comprehensive political achievement that will also help it in Gaza and Judea and Samaria (West Bank),” (9/12/24)

With regards to the groups and factions, it is noticeable that neither Jolani nor any of the factions have made any reference to Israel and are weary of Biden’s threat that “We take a note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days, and they’re saying the right things now, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their word, but their actions”. Although this is understandable given the need to stabilise the situation first.

However, the US, after effectively removing Hezbollah and its weapons corridor to Lebanon, as a threat to Israel from Syria, continues to engineer the defanging of Syria as a threat to Israel. Consequently, under under the pretext of fighting ISIS, the US has continued to maintain its base in eastern Turkey with 900 officially stated troops, to firstly protect Jolani and any threats that may emerge against US wishes and interests, including the protection of Israel, and secondly to eradicate any faction/elements which could oppose a new compliant regime to the US.

With regards to the factions themselves, all have US support and would be amenable to protecting Israel, especially the fully US backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) and the Syrian Democratic Front (SDF), a Kurdish dominated and fully US backed outfit, which has a fluid relationship with Israel. The Times of Israel published an interview with a commander from the American backed FSA, which has fought with HTS against the regime. According to the commander;

“In the end, once the Assad regime is toppled, HTS will be pressured to move away from its fundamentalist ideology and move to the political center, in the interest of Syria…Extremism in Syria is a foreign import – and we as Syrians don’t want foreign interference in our country…We are open to friendship with everyone in the region – including Israel. We don’t have enemies other than the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Iran. What Israel did against Hezbollah in Lebanon helped us a great deal. Now we are taking care of the rest…We will go for full peace with Israel, we will live side by side as neighbors…The day Assad falls, we will reverse the disintegration of Syria, and we will turn the Syrian state into a democratic one. Our clear objective is to liberate and reconstruct our country and ensure that all ethnic and religious groups can coexist…What is the Israeli interest in maintaining Bashar al-Assad in power, after he threatened Israel’s security by allowing Iran and Hezbollah to encroach on Israel’s borders? Does Israel think that it can live next to a disintegrated country plagued by chaos? If so, Israel should expect rockets launched against it within a few months. I will only say that we are thankful to Israel for its strikes against Hezbollah and against the Iranian infrastructure in Syria, and we hope that after the fall of Assad, Israel will plant a rose in the Syrian garden and will support the Syrian people, for the benefit of the region. Syrian citizens are the ones who will remain on Israel’s borders. Not Bashar al-Assad and not the Iranians. We have enough fighters on the ground. What we need from Israel is a clear political stance against the Assad regime [i.e. in support for the rebels]. We need a political signal to build trust with the Syrian people.” (Israeli Times 6/12/24)

However, it is the Kurdish issue which is the problematic area for Turkey and Iran in particular, and the established US plan to carve out a Kurdish state from Iraq, Iran and Turkey. In this regard, the Kurdish movements have become natural allies of Israel, and a strategic tool for Israel to manipulate the region. This was further confirmed by Israel’s new foreign minister Gideon Saar who in November, 2024 stated that Israel should reach out to the Kurds and other regional minorities that are “natural” allies. Further stating;

“The Kurdish people are a great nation, one of the great nations without political independence,” describing Kurds as “our natural ally…It is a national minority in four different countries, in two of which it enjoys autonomy: de facto in Syria and de jure in the Iraqi constitution…” Kurds are “a victim of oppression and aggression from Iran and Turkey”, and that Israel needed to strenghten ties to them. “This has both political and security aspects,” (Middle East Eye 11/11/24)

Hence, why, one of the key reasons for Turkish intervention in Syria has been to make sure that the Kurdish factions and areas in northwest Syria, firstly are not used for attacks on Turkish territory and secondly, to make sure that the Kurds are unable to carve out a separate entity in Syria and the possibility of annexing with Kurdish North Iraq enroute to carving out a larger Kurdish state. This has been the main bone of conflict between the US and Turkey in Syria, where the US have backed the PYG Kurdish faction, which Turkey considers an extension of the PKK, with which Turkey is fighting a military conflict.

This also the reason why Turkish Foreign Minister Hakkan Fidan in his press conference following the seizure of Damascus by HTS stated emphatically that he new government body should be inclusive of all parties,” he said, speaking at Qatar’s Doha Forum conference.

“Opposition groups should be united now…Turkey attaches great importance to the national unity, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Syria, and the wellbeing of the Syrian people” (MEI 08/12/24)

The Turkish influence with regards to the Kurdish issue was also clear over the Syrian National Coalition ( an alliance of opposition groups formed in exile following the 2011 uprising against Assad), when its president Hadi Al Bahra at a conference in Doha on 8/12/24 just hours after the seizure of Damascus spoke of the role of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who control swathes of eastern Syria, al-Bahra said it needs to break its relationship with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), stating that the SDF “did not stand clearly with the Syria revolution”, and sided with the Assad government on many occasions. He said the opposition expects the SDF to cut its relations with the PKK in order to be included in the transitional period. “They should become a 100-percent Syrian organisation sharing the same objectives,” MEI 8/12/24).

Consequently, despite the American overt position of wanting a free and unified Syria, its real aim is to play up the issue of the minorities, the Alawites, Druze, Christians and Kurds, in order to keep Syria fragmented and unstable.

Consequently, the most possible outcome in line with US and Israeli interests would be a federated state which consolidates regional centres for each minority. Federalisation was what was proposed by the US through its client, the UN envoy to Syria in 2016, Staffan de Mistura. The Syrian Kurdish PYD party made it clear that this is what they wanted, with its co-leader Saleh Muslim stating in 2016, “What you call it isn’t important…We have said over and over again that we want a decentralised Syria – call it administrations, call it federalism – everything is possible.” (Al Jazeera 11/03/2016).