Israeli Destruction of Syrian Infrastructure Continues

DAMASCUS (Dispatches) -- Israel on Sunday struck dozens of sites in Syria overnight with airstrikes, despite militant leader Abu Muhammed al-Jolani, saying his Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group was not interested in conflict with the Zionist regime.
Jolani’s comments came as Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he had approved a plan to expand settlement building in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The latest airstrikes follow a statement by Zionist war minister Israel Katz that Israeli troops, who seized the Golan Heights buffer zone with Syria last week, would remain for the winter on Jabel Sheikh in positions they occupied last week.
Katz’s office said in a statement that “due to what is happening in Syria, there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak”.
Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, a nom de guerre used by Ahmed al-Sharaa, told Syrian state media: “We are not in the process of engaging in a conflict with Israel.”
Jolani said the Zionist regime was using false pretexts to justify its attacks on Syria, but that he was not interested in engaging in new conflicts. 
“Israeli arguments have become weak and no longer justify their recent violations. The Israelis have clearly crossed the lines of engagement in Syria, which poses a threat of unwarranted escalation in the region,” Jolani said.
“Syria’s war-weary condition, after years of conflict and war, does not allow for new confrontations.”
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the occupying regime of Israel fired 61 missiles at Syrian military sites in less than five hours on Saturday evening.
Israeli air raids hit bases, heavy weapons, sites associated with the country’s missile program, and destroyed Syria’s small naval force in port of Latakia.
The continuing strikes have prompted mounting concern among diplomats and international officials concerned over what they fear may be an open-ended new occupation of Syrian territory and Israel’s agenda in the Syrian buffer zone.
Netanyahu justified his announcement of plans to expand Israeli settlements in the part of the Golan Heights the Zionist entity initially occupied in 1973 “in light of the war and the new front facing Syria” and a desire to double the Israeli population in the area.
“Strengthening the Golan is … especially important at this time. We will continue to hold on to it, cause it to blossom and settle in it,” he said in the statement.
The UN has called on Israel to withdraw from the buffer zone, which sits between Syria and the Israeli-occupied area.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said he was “deeply concerned by the recent and extensive violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
France, Germany and Spain have also called on Israel to withdraw from the demilitarized zone.
The UN has said the Zionist regime is in violation of a 1974 disengagement agreement between Israel and Syria that established the buffer zone. Israel has said the 1974 disengagement agreement “collapsed” with the fall of the Assad government.
According to reports, among the sites hit over the weekend were military headquarters, Syrian army positions, radars, and arms caches and assets of the Syrian Scientific Studies and Research Center, which was responsible for developing advanced weapons.
The occupying regime of Israel also estimates it has destroyed much of the Syrian air force’s infrastructure and aircraft.
The scale of the Israeli bombing campaign has surprised many western capitals, who had believed that any Israeli strikes would be limited to alleged chemical weapons and missiles sites rather than an effort aimed at the wholesale destruction of the Syria’s military, which has had 70% of its capabilities destroyed in hundreds of attacks.
The latest Israeli air raids came as the U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, wound up talks with Jordan, Turkey and Iraq with the aim of trying to shape the future of a post-Assad Syria by forging consensus among regional partners and allies whose interests often diverge.
“We know that what happens inside of Syria can have powerful consequences well beyond its borders, from mass displacement to terrorism,” he told reporters in Aqaba, Jordan. “And we know that we can’t underestimate the challenges of this moment.”
Blinken also confirmed contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
Blinken would not discuss details of the direct contacts with HTS but said it was important for the U.S. to convey messages to the group about its conduct and how it intended to govern in a transition period.
Meanwhile, the EU will not lift sanctions on Syria in its foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday, the bloc’s top diplomat said.
“One of the questions is whether we are able to, in the future, look at the adaptation of the sanctions regime. But this clearly is not the question of today, but rather in the future where we have seen that the steps go in the right direction,” new EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
The United Nations special envoy to Syria on Sunday called for “justice and accountability” in the country, rather than acts of “revenge” following the overthrow of President Assad.
“We need to see of course justice and accountability for crimes. And we need to make sure that that goes through a credible justice system, and that we don’t see any revenge,” Geir Pedersen said in Damascus.