U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on Israel to halt its airstrikes on Syria, calling them violations of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“Syria’s sovereignty, territorial unity and integrity must be fully restored, and all acts of aggression must come to an immediate end,” Guterres told reporters.
Since the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad abruptly fell earlier this month, Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes, including around the capital, Damascus, that it says are aimed at destroying strategic weapons and military infrastructure.
The family of Austin Tice, the American journalist detained in Syria for more than 12 years, has raised concerns that Israel may be striking a part of the country where the reporter is held.
Israeli troops have also moved into the demilitarized zone between Syria and the Israel-occupied Golan Heights — formed after the 1973 Arab-Israeli war — that U.N. peacekeepers patrol.
“Let me be clear: There should be no military forces in the area of separation other than U.N. peacekeepers — period. Israel and Syria must uphold the terms of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement, which remains fully in force,” Guterres said.
Israeli officials have said the move is a limited and temporary measure intended to ensure the security of Israel’s borders. However, Israeli officials have not indicated when Israel’s troops will be withdrawn.
Guterres also said the U.N. is focusing on helping foster an “inclusive, credible and peaceful” political transition in Syria and getting aid moving to address one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world.
“This is a decisive moment — a moment of hope and history, but also one of great uncertainty,” he said. “But it is the obligation of the international community to stand with the people of Syria who have suffered so much. Syria’s future must be shaped by its people, for its people, with the support of all of us.”
Also on Thursday, the Pentagon confirmed to VOA that it has 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria, more than twice the 900 it previously said were there.
The Pentagon said the additional troops are considered temporary forces. They were sent to Syria to support the mission against Islamic State militants.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder told reporters he did not know how long the number had been 2,000, but it predated the fall of Assad.
“For many of our deployments, numbers will fluctuate from time to time. But given that this number is significantly higher than what we’ve been briefing, I wanted to let you know as soon as I found out this information,” Ryder told VOA. He added that he learned of the new figure Thursday.
Meanwhile, Iraq on Thursday sent nearly 2,000 Syrian soldiers back to Syria after they had sought refuge in Iraq during the push by rebel forces to oust Assad, according to an Iraqi military statement.
The Syrian soldiers were returned at their request and entered via an Iraq-Syria border crossing, according to the statement.
The Iraqi Defense Ministry kept the soldiers’ weapons and will return them to a new Syrian government once it is formed, the statement said.
Russian response
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday rejected the notion that Assad’s ouster represented a defeat for Russia.
Putin said during his annual news conference that Russia had “achieved our goals” in Syria, where it rushed to provide direct military support for Assad’s government more than nine years ago to help push back rebel fighters.
Russian forces operated out of a network of bases in Syria to carry out airstrikes that helped Assad’s military gain an advantage in the civil war.
After rebels made a surprise surge that toppled Assad’s government earlier this month, Assad fled to Russia.
Putin said Thursday that he had not yet met with Assad but planned to do so. Among the topics Putin said he would discuss is the whereabouts of Tice. He also said he could ask those now in control in Syria about Tice.
Syrian transition
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that Syrians face an “incredibly fraught” opportunity as they work to shift away from decades of Assad family rule to a new future.
Speaking at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations, Blinken said the question is whether Syrians will “seize an opportunity for the first time in decades not to be governed by a dictator, not to be governed by an outside power, not to be governed by a terrorist organization, not to be governed by one sect or minority over another.”
He also pointed to the rebels who seized power, and the opportunity they have to engage with the outside world and not take actions that will isolate the country.
Blinken highlighted the example of the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying the group pledged to be more moderate after it seized control but ultimately acted otherwise and ended up “terribly isolated around the world.”
He said those in Syria need to move the country forward in an inclusive, nonsectarian way, to protect minorities and deal with security challenges such as chemical weapons and groups such as Islamic State.
Syria’s new education minister, Nazir Mohammad al-Qadri, said Thursday that the new government would not restrict the rights of girls to learn.
“Education is a red line for the Syrian people, more important than food and water,” he told Reuters in Damascus.
“The right to education is not limited to one specific gender,” he said. “There may be more girls in our schools than boys.”
Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
