DAMASCUS, Jan 29, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Syria's new authorities on Wednesday urged Israel's withdrawal from Syrian territory it occupied in the Golan Heights after president Bashar al-Assad's ousting, during talks with UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, state media reported.

During Lacroix's meeting with Syria's foreign and defence ministers, "it was confirmed that Syria is ready to fully cooperate with the UN", the SANA news agency said.

Syria is also ready to redeploy forces to the Golan in line with a 1974 agreement establishing a buffer zone "provided Israeli forces withdraw immediately", SANA added.

Israel sent troops into the demilitarised buffer zone on December 8, the day Assad was toppled. 

Israel seized most of the mountainous plateau from Syria during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed it in 1981. The UN-patrolled buffer zone was intended to keep Israeli and Syrian forces apart.

Forces loyal to Assad's government had abandoned their positions in southern Syria before rebel groups even reached Damascus, leading Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say there was a "vacuum on Israel's border". 

The United Nations considers Israel's takeover of the buffer zone a violation of the 1974 disengagement accord.

During his visit, Lacroix was to meet peacekeepers from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), which monitors compliance with the deal.

In December, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered the military to "prepare to remain" in the buffer zone throughout winter.

On Tuesday, he said troops would remain "at the top of Mount Hermon and in the security zone indefinitely to protect Golan communities, the north and all Israeli citizens."

Mount Hermon straddles Syria and Lebanon, overlooking the Golan Heights.
"We will not allow hostile forces to establish themselves in the security zone in southern Syria," he said.