JNS
"Southern Syria must be demilitarized, and we will not allow harm to come to the Druze," Israel's defense minister told the Texas senator.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held a meeting with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday as part of his visit to Washington, Katz's office said.
The official meeting, which also included Maj. Gen. (res.) Amir Baram, director general of the Israeli Defense Ministry, focused on recent developments in Syria, according to a readout from Jerusalem.
"We established a clear policy: Southern Syria must be demilitarized, and we will not allow harm to come to the Druze," the defense minister was said to have told Cruz. "We stand firmly behind the policy we set."
From the moment Jerusalem realized the Syrian regime was complicit in massacres against the local Druze population, the Israel Defense Forces "struck with full force at regime targets in Sweida and Damascus—until the regime forces withdrew, as we had demanded," Katz continued.
"We rely only on God and the IDF to protect the State of Israel," he said, explaining that Israel didn't trust the Assad family during their 50-year rule, nor does it trust new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, "who deploys jihadist groups against minorities" in the country.
Al-Sharaa "could tomorrow turn them [jihadist groups] against Israeli villages in the Golan Heights," Katz warned Cruz, according to the readout.
"The IDF's presence on [the summit of the Syrian] Mount Hermon and in the security zone is the guarantee of our security," Katz concluded.
Katz departed for Washington on Wednesday evening to meet with U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and other senior officials to discuss Iran and other security challenges facing the Jewish state, he said.
The visit marks Katz's first official trip to the United States since assuming the post of defense minister in November 2024.
Katz flew out of Tel Aviv just hours after the IDF attacked targets of the Syrian Defense Ministry in Damascus in response to regime-linked massacres of the Druze in the southern part of the Arab Republic.
"The Syrian regime must leave the Druze in Sweida alone and withdraw its forces," Katz said on Wednesday, emphasizing that Jerusalem would not abandon the Druze and would enforce its disarmament policy.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Wednesday that he phoned "relevant parties" amid the fighting, saying he was "very concerned" and urging "real de-escalation" in the conflict.
Rubio told journalists he believed there was a "misunderstanding" between Jerusalem and Damascus that led to the military action.
An anonymous senior U.S. official told Axios on Wednesday that Trump administration officials had asked the Jewish state to "stand down and take a breath."
