US says it opposed Israeli strikes in Syria - Region

Al-Ahram Weekly

2 days ago

The United States said Thursday that it opposed its ally Israel's strikes in Syria, a day after Washington helped broker a deal to end violence.
"The United States did not support recent Israeli strikes," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters.
"We are engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between the two sovereign states," she said.
She declined to say if the United States had expressed its displeasure with Israel or whether it would oppose future strikes on Syria.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio voiced concern when asked about the Israeli strikes, which included attacking the defense ministry in Damascus.
He later issued a statement that did not directly address the Israeli strikes but voiced broader concern about the violence.
Israel said it was intervening on behalf of the Druze community after communal clashes.
Israel has repeatedly been striking Syria, a historic adversary, since Islamist fighters in December overthrew President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel, which has its own Druze community, has presented itself as a defender of the minority group, although some analysts say that is a pretext for pursuing its own military goal of keeping Syrian government forces as far away as possible from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
US President Donald Trump, who spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday by telephone, has sided with Turkey and Saudi Arabia in seeking a better relationship with Syria under its new leader, former guerrilla Ahmed al-Sharaa.
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