Ahmed al-Shara (better known as Abu Mohammad al-Jolani), the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), now in power in Damascus, called on Israel to withdraw from the territory it seized in the past week. He declared that Syria will not be used for attacks against Israel, so there has to be a return to the 1974 armistice agreement that ended the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
“We are committed to the 1974 agreement, and we are prepared to return the UN [monitors],” al-Sharaa said, in an interview with The Times of London on Dec. 16. “We do not want any conflict, whether with Israel or anyone else, and we will not let Syria be used as a launchpad for attacks. The Syrian people need a break, and the strikes must end and Israel has to pull back to its previous positions.”
He said Israel must vacate the Syrian territories occupied in the past week, since the “justification is gone” for Israel’s actions, in the form of the presence of members of the Hezbollah movement, and pro-Iranian forces.
