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The United Nations has sharply criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent field tour of the buffer zone in southern Syria, calling the high-profile visit a serious breach of Syria's territorial integrity and demanding adherence to a decades-old disengagement agreement.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric described Netanyahu's visit as "concerning, to say the least" during a Wednesday news conference, urging Israel to respect the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that established the buffer zone between Israeli and Syrian forces in the Golan Heights region.
The rebuke comes as the UN Security Council recently passed resolution 2799, which affirms Syria's "full sovereignty, unity, independence and territorial integrity," Dujarric noted. The issue was also raised during a recent meeting between Deputy UN envoy for Syria Najat Rochdi and Syria's foreign minister.
Rochdi issued a formal statement calling Netanyahu's visit "a further grave violation of Syria's sovereignty" and appealing to the Security Council to take action. She once again called for Israel's violations to cease and for adherence to the disengagement agreement, urging the council to "assume its responsibilities in this regard."
The Syrian Foreign Ministry similarly condemned what it termed the "illegitimate visit" by Netanyahu and Israeli occupation officials, describing it as a grave violation of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Israel has significantly expanded its military presence in Syrian territory following the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in late 2024. The Israeli military seized the demilitarized buffer zone established under the 1974 agreement, which had previously separated Israeli and Syrian forces in the contested Golan Heights area.
The 1974 Disengagement Agreement, brokered by the United States following the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, created a buffer zone monitored by UN peacekeeping forces to prevent renewed conflict between Israel and Syria over the strategic plateau.
Israeli military operations in southern Syria have escalated in recent months, according to local residents and government data. Syrians living near the border have reported Israeli forces advancing into their farmland, destroying hundreds of acres of forests, arresting residents, and establishing new military checkpoints throughout the region.
Since December 2024, the Israeli army has conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on Syrian territory and carried out over 400 cross-border raids into southern provinces, according to Syrian government figures.
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