Moscow wants Israel to help speed US exit from Syria, but won’t stop Iranian arms shipments
Iran’s removal from Syria is a non-starter until the Americans pull out. This is the message two high-ranking Russian officials were to hand Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
The message from President Vladimir Putin was carried to Jerusalem by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and special presidential envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentiev. While Moscow described their mission as part of a joint Russian-Israeli effort to reach common solutions to the political and military problems arising in Syria, their Israeli hosts understood that Netanyahu was being asked to use his influence with US President Donald Trump and his White House advisers to get American troops out of Syria with all possible speed. In fact, Messrs. Vershinin and Lavrentiev had hardly unpacked their bags on Monday when they confronted Foreign Ministry Director General Yuval Rotem with a demand for Israel to push Washington into abandoning the Marines base at Al Tanf.
Moscow first raised this demand six months ago. It also comes up whenever President Putin or his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov meets President Trump or any American military or diplomatic officials – so far without eliciting a clear answer. The only White House formulation is that Al Tanf’s eventual evacuation will take place as part of the comprehensive American troop pullout from Syria, which is not imminent.
Al Tanf is the key to the plans and interests of Moscow, as well as Iran, Israel and Jordan, because it sits at the heart of a 55-km enclave of southeastern Syria which controls the junction of the Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian borders. The US garrison therefore stands in the way of the entry of Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militias into Syria. Washington has not yet decided whether to make the US base at Al Tanf permanent or eliminate it. Israel and Jordan are urgently pressing the Americans to stay there.
Moscow, in bidding for Israel’s intercession with the Trump administration, is hobbled by failing to comply with Putin’s promises to Trump and Netanyahu in 2017 with regard to limitations on the Iranian presence in Syria. In fact, ever since then, under the noses of the Russian command, forces loyal to Tehran, including Hizballah, have been edging closer towards the Israeli and Jordanian borders.
Therefore, Putin’s two emissaries will no doubt hear the prime minister reply to their request by saying that, before discussing Al Tanf, Israel wants to see Moscow upholding its commitments. DEBKAfile’s sources sum up the Israeli position as centering on three demands:
- Iranian and pro-Iranian forces in Syria must pull 80km back from its border, in line with Putin’s promise of 2017.
- Tehran must be stopped from transferring arms shipments for Syria and Hizballah by air. Moscow has never acceded to Israel’s demands on this score although it was raised at every Israeli-Russian encounter in the past year.
- The factories located in Syrian bases for attaching precision-guidance devices to Hizballah’s ground missiles must be dismantled forthwith.
The Russians have picked up on voices in Israel who advise the prime minister and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi to switch their orientation. Israel’s military actions for driving the Iranians out of Syria – however effective, they say, will not fully achieve their goal unless Moscow takes a hand and intercedes politically with Tehran. This view was first aired publicly on Monday, Jan. 28, by a former Israeli Air Force chief, Meir Eshel. He was the first high-ranking Israeli military officer to say plainly that Israel would be better off relying on Moscow than on Washington to achieve its objectives regarding Iran and Syria.
you cannot trust the americans. they do what is best for them not israel.
but the same with the soviets. if you trust them…. they will screw you over.
only trust yourself.
Right
dont you have a very powerfull army in the region? ISRAEL COMMITTED A BIG MISTAKE BY NOT INTERVENING WHEN THE WAR BEGAN!!!! . IF THEY HAD HELPED THE REBELS FORCES TO WIN , TODAY THERE WILL BE NO RUSSIAN, IRANIANS, HEZBOLLAHS PROBLEM.!!!!!
@ANONYM Cut out the caps. Why are you shouting at me?
Why are you calling them “Rebels”? Those are head chopping terrorist that would be attacking Israel at every chance and would make Syria a Failed State like Libya. I do not see the above mentioning doing anything but killing terrorist for that last 7-8 years.
Israel made a big mistake starting the so called revolution in the first place. there would be no russians or iranian problem if they had minded their own business . what is the saying reap what you soe. now you have a huge enemy on your borders well trained and armed and not a bunch of cowards that want someone else to fight for them. i can see we are going to need the pop corn soon
Remember the good old days, when the parasites said they were not intervening? And then any time a fact was presented, it was labeled anti-parasite? Then when they kept loosing, they say they should have done more.
WFC
Putin is a Putana end of story
Russians have shown themselves to be totally unreliable when it comes to Iranian deployments near Golan let alone the rest of Syria…..Iranian and Shia Militia forces just changed into Syrian Uniforms with Syrian ID documents. All with Russian acquiescence and blind eyes. USA MUST remain in Al Tamf for foreseeable future. No exceptions .Putin may be a marvelous guy but Russian forces are very untrustworthy.Israel must keep finger on the trigger! Dont ever trust Russians in Syria.
Who keeps kosher anymore? The manhood of a little piggie shoved deep into my bowels is more than I can take, emotionally.
Much as it violates my religious sensibilities, I have to recommend it…
The european sqatter state has no right to dictate ANYTHING to the Syrian government after serving ISISrael’s air force there for almost a decade.
The european antisemites LOST, and it’s about time to pay the price: those heights you stole.
Iran’s rockets can light up Tel Aviv, whether they’re in Syria or not. So can Hizbollah, for that matter.
You LOSERS sure are screwed.
Why the heck would Israel ever trust Russia????
“Air Force chief, Meir Eshel. He was the first high-ranking Israeli military officer to say plainly that Israel would be better off relying on Moscow than on Washington to achieve its objectives regarding Iran and Syria.”
Doesn’t this chief know that Russia (ROSH) will lead the Northern Invader at Armageddon Ezekiel 38 prophecy??
Exactly 17 years ago, on 29 of January 2002, in his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes for the first time “regimes that sponsor terror” as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
Today, with Iraq out of troubled times, only two remain: Iran and North Korea
These form the new Axis of Scat and Stink.
Please also note: on 29 of January we celebrate the bulet to the head sent to Mohammed Yusuf, Nigerian Islamist leader, founded Boko Haram. The skunk was known to say in the name of his people that the concept of a spherical Earth is contrary to Islamic teaching and should be rejected. He also rejected Darwinian evolution, and the concept of the condensation cycle that produces rain.
Iraq won the war having won Iranian recognition of exclusive Iraqi sovereignty over the Shatt-el-Arab River (into which the Tigris and Euphrates combine, forming Iraq’s best outlet to the sea), in 1988 Saddam Hussein surrendered that gain when in need of Iran’s neutrality in anticipation of an american invasion…he didnt want to face two fronts in case iran wanted t help america. Learn your history.
Sure, sure. Are Putin’s thugs to be believed?
“Send your ally back across the ocean, out of range to aid when needed. Trust me, I am Putt-Putt! I promise you peace with the muslims but first you must demonstrate your trust by giving up your #1 military backup. Trust me, I am Putt-Putt!”
Churchill: “Trying to maintain good relations with a Communist is like wooing a crocodile. You do not know whether to tickle it under the chin or beat it over the head. When it opens its mouth, you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up.”
“How many more dictators must be wooed, appeased, even paid off, before we learn that you cannot reason with a bear when your head is in its mouth!” (loose memory of a Churchill movie script).
The Bible says Israel WILL trust its enemy until that enemy betrays her by murdering her people and facilitating its 21st-century Exodus. Mankind is powerless to prevent or negotiate this.
The world is watching…
Isaiah 17 – A Prophecy about Damascus – Coming Soon….
https://biblehub.com/kjv/isaiah/17.htm
Time is running out fot the CHURCH AGE.Nukes will wipe out Damascus.Different missiles will wipe out HEZBOLLAH ,HAMAS AND THE PALESTINIANS.IRAN MUST HAVE ORDERED SOME BIG FOR ISRAEL TO DO THIS.THE NEXT BATTLE AFTER THAT GOD HIMSELF WILL DESTROY THE ARMIES, OF RUSSIA,IRAN TURKEY AND OTHERS.PUT THERE WILL BE SOME TIME BETWEEN THESE WAR’S. GOD HAS A PLAN AND I THINK THESE WARS ARE VERY CLOSE.JUDGMENT IS COMING. THE GOOD NEWS IS SO IS THE RAPTURE.
The Russians are the problem… They arm the Iranians, Syrians, Hezbollah and Hamas. Then the Russians ask the Israeli’s who are facing those Russian weapons supplied to the radical Islamist’s to help get the US out of Syria faster…Putin thinks everybody are idiots but him! The best thing the free world could do is force the price of oil down to 10 USD a barrel and then watch the Russians collapse again….Russia economy is oil based and that is very bad for the Russians…