Syria calls on EU to pressure Israel ‘effectively’ to halt attacks on its territory

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Tuesday called on the European Union to move beyond statements of concern and exert effective pressure on Israel to halt its continuing attacks on Syria.

“This systematic aggression against a country that is recovering requires more than statements of concern; it requires effective pressure to stop these attacks,” Shaibani told a joint press conference with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas in Damascus.

He called on the EU Foreign Affairs Council to take “a decisive position by calling these attacks by their true name” and demanding the withdrawal of Israeli forces to the lines held on Dec. 8, 2024.

Shaibani also called for the issue to be explicitly placed on the agenda of the EU’s Political and Security Committee.

He said Europe’s rejection of changing borders by force should apply equally on the other side of the Mediterranean.

Israel has carried out repeated strikes and ground incursions in southern Syria since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024. Syria says Israel must withdraw from territory it seized after Dec. 8, 2024 and has reaffirmed its commitment to the 1974 disengagement agreement.

Shaibani reiterated that the occupied Golan Heights are Syrian territory and said UN Security Council Resolution 497 considers Israel’s annexation of the territory “null and void.”

He welcomed the EU’s rejection of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and said Damascus remains fully committed to the 1974 disengagement agreement, while seeking active European support for renewing the mandate of the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

Last week, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa told the UN General Assembly that Israel had carried out nearly 500 air and artillery strikes, more than 1,200 incursions and around 300 arrests and detentions of Syrians, while reiterating Damascus’ demand for an Israeli withdrawal to the Dec. 8, 2024 lines.