New Delhi, Aug. 26 -- One day after Syria and Israel sat across a table in Jordan for the first US-mediated direct talks in living memory, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz crossed into Syrian territory, stood before Israeli troops on occupied Syrian soil, and announced he was not leaving.

a breach of international law, the UN Charter, and the 1974 Disengagement Agreement that Israel itself had declared void eight months earlier. Damascus called on the international community to force Israel to end what it called "repeated violations" of Syrian territory and demanded a complete withdrawal from all positions occupied since the fall of the Assad government in December 2024.

The timing made the statement more pointed than most. On Monda...