Israeli troops invaded southwestern Syria following the rebel overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in December [Getty]
Israel is reportedly planning to divide Syria into autonomous cantons, under the pretext of “safeguarding” the rights of Syria’s ethnic and religious minorities, Israeli media reported on Friday.
The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported that Defence Minister Israel Katz chaired an Israeli cabinet meeting last Wednesday which discussed Turkey’s influence in Syria, without providing a source for this information.
It said that the ministers present at the meeting discussed Israeli misgivings about Syria’s de-facto leader, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, who headed the hardline Islamist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, as well as the “safety” of Syria’s Druze and Kurdish populations.
According to Israel HaYom, the Israeli cabinet discussed a plan to divide Syria into autonomous cantons on ethnic and sectarian lines adding that the plan had been floated by Israeli officials ever since the overthrow of the Assad regime.
It added however that Israel’s association with such a plan meant that it would face strong opposition within Syria.
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen proposed an international conference to discuss the situation in Syria. He said that Israel’s main objective was “securing Israel’s northern border” against potential threats from Syrian armed groups.
After a rebel offensive toppled Syria’s longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad on 8 December, Israel invaded a UN-patrolled buffer zone separating the Golan Heights – occupied by Israel since 1967 – from the rest of southern Syria.
It has forcibly displaced residents of some towns and villages in this area and launched massive airstrikes on military facilities in the rest of Syria, with the aim of destroying the country’s strategic weapons.
Syria’s minority Druze religious community live mostly in the south of the country near the Golan Heights, and Israel has tried to sow discord between them and the Sunni majority.
Video appeared on social media shortly after Assad’s overthrow, purporting to show Druze Syrians expressing fears of Islamist rule and calling for their towns to be annexed to Israel.
The video was quickly disowned by Druze leaders.
