Baku. TurkicWorld
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has ordered Israeli troops to prepare to stay over the winter on Mount Hermon, a strategic location overlooking Damascus.
"Due to what is happening in Syria - there is enormous security importance to our holding on to the peak of Mount Hermon," a statement from Katz's office said, TurkicWorld reports referencing Al-Awsat.
The order suggests that Israeli troops who moved into a buffer zone inside Syrian territory as well as a few additional points following the collapse of President Bashar al-Assad's government are likely to remain.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the troops would remain until there was an effective force in place to enforce the Separation of Forces Agreement signed following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
A number of countries have condemned Israel's incursion, calling it a breach of the agreement that followed the Arab-Israeli war. But the United States has offered its support, saying the move was necessary for Israel's self-defense.
As well as moving troops into the buffer zone, Israel has also destroyed the bulk of the Syrian military's arsenal of weapons and ammunition in hundreds of air and naval strikes this week, a move it said was aimed at preventing the equipment falling into the hand of hostile forces.
