UN chief Guterres demands halt to Israeli operations in Syria

Air strikes on military assets are breaches of sovereignty, Guterres tells Security Council

Hundreds of people protested in central Damascus on Thursday, calling for democracy and women’s rights. AP

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Israeli strikes on Syrian military infrastructure are in breach of the country’s sovereignty, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday.

Since the collapse of Bashar Al Assad’s regime this month, Israel has bombed hundreds of weapons sites, airbases and naval assets in Syria and sent troops into a buffer zone in the Golan Heights. Israeli officials have called the incursion a limited and temporary measure to ensure the security of Israel’s borders, but have not indicated when the troops will be withdrawn.

“Extensive Israeli air strikes continue. These are violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and they must stop,” Mr Guterres said before a UN Security Council meeting led by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

During his annual media briefing on Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that Moscow’s intervention in the Syrian civil war had been successful.

“You want to present what is happening in Syria as a defeat for Russia,” Mr Putin said, answering a question from a US journalist. “I assure you it is not. We came to Syria 10 years ago so that a terrorist enclave would not be created there like in Afghanistan. On the whole, we have achieved our goal.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of people protested in central Damascus on Thursday, calling for democracy and women’s rights. “We want a democracy, not a religious state,” chanted protesters in the capital’s Umayyad Square. Some held signs with slogans such as “no free nation without free women”.

In northern Syria, tension continues to rise between the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, backed by the US, and militias aligned with Turkey, including the Syrian National Army. The SDF on Thursday vowed to fight Turkey and its proxies in the city of Kobani.

Ankara says the SDF, which is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Defence Units (YPG), is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been designated a terrorist group by various countries, including Turkey and the US.

Turkey has denied reports that it had agreed to a ceasefire with the SDF, despite the US having announced the extension of a truce in the city of Manbij.

“It is out of the question for us to have talks with any terrorist organisation. The statement must be a slip of the tongue,” a Turkish official said on Thursday. He added that Ankara sees a threat to its borders from northern Syria.