DAMASCUS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu violated Syria’s sovereignty on Wednesday by visiting occupied territory in the country’s south, drawing outrage from Damascus.

“The Syrian Arab Republic strongly condemns the illegal entry of Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into Syrian territory and his tour of Mount Hermon, in a provocative move and a blatant violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic and of international law,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Benjamin Netanyahu said during the visit to Israeli troops in southern Syria that Iran’s government was on the verge of collapse.

“There is still work to be done ‑ the main task is to bring down the regime in Iran. We are very close to that,” he said on the Syrian side of Mount Hermon. He was accompanied by Defence Minister Israel Katz.

“We know that the entire axis will ultimately collapse,” Netanyahu added, referring to Iran’s alleged proxy groups in the Middle East.

The premier was accompanied by Defence Minister Israel Katz, who addressed Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in a video message filmed atop Mount Hermon, vowing that troops would not withdraw from Syria.

“We are here sending a very strong and clear message to the President of Syria, who sits 35 kilometres away down there in his palace in Damascus: we are here on Mount Hermon, we are in the security zone, and we are not moving from here,” he said.

In southern Syria, Israeli forces have been stationed in a “security zone” since the fall of Bashar Al Assad in Dec 2024.

They occupy what was previously a buffer zone patrolled by the United Nations that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces in occupied Golan since 1974.

Syria no longer under probe

The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors has decided to close a long-time probe against Syria launched under Bashar al Assad after the country’s new authorities led agency experts to key nuclear sites.

Last month, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited two sites, one in Deir Ezzor and a second in an undisclosed location identified to them by Syrian authorities.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2026