Jets
Israeli Air Force F16i jets. Photo by IDF Spokesman's Office
Text size

The Syrian opposition is willing to give up claims to the Golan Heights in return for cash and Israeli military aid against President Bashar Assad, a top opposition official told Al Arab newspaper, according to a report in Al Alam.

"Why shouldn’t we be able to sell the Golan Heights because it is better than losing Syria and Golan at once," Kamal al-Labwani, a prominent member of the Syrian opposition, told the Arab newspaper, according Al Alam, an Arabic language Iran state-owned media outlet.

The Western-backed militant groups want Israel to enforce a no-fly zone over parts of southern Syria to protect rebel bases from air strikes by Assad's forces, according to the report. 

Syrian government forces backed by Hezbollah militants took full control of the town of Yabroud on Sunday after driving out rebels, helping President Bashar Assad secure the land route linking the capital Damascus to Aleppo and the Mediterranean coast on the third anniversary of Syria’s civil war.

The fall of Yabroud, the last rebel bastion near the Lebanese border, could choke off a vital insurgent supply line from Lebanon and consolidate government control over a swathe of territory from Damascus to the central city of Homs.