https://www.debka.com/

Nov 22, 2017

 

No progress in Putin-Netanyahu conversation on Iran/Hizballah removal from Golan border

 

President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ended their telephone conversation on Tuesday, Nov. 21, at odds on the Iranian and Hizballah presence in the Syrian de-escalation zone near the Israeli border.
DEBKAfile’s sources report that Putin reminded Netanyahu about his deal with President Donald Trump for the creation of a de-escalation zone stretching from the Syria-Jordanian-Israeli border junction at the Golan up to Mt. Hermon. The southernmost section is 20km wide, but the northern one is only 7km from Israel’s northern Golan border. (See attached map.) Putin noted that 1,000 Russian military police officers were already deployed there to monitor security and ascertain that no party violates the ceasefire in this zone.
Netanyahu replied that he was not challenging the de-escalation zone per se, but so long as Iranian and Hizballah forces were present there, Israel could not guarantee not to open fire, if its border security was threatened.

The impression gained by our sources was that Putin was anxious to obtain this Israeli semi-commitment – to refrain from striking Iranian and Hizballah forces against Moscow’s promise of responsibility for holding them back from attacking Israel – to put before the trilateral summit he had convened in Sochi on Wednesday, Nov. 22.  It was to be attended by President Hassan Rouhani of Iran and President Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and approve steps for moving Syria from a state of war to a political settlement.
Netanyahu continued to stand by Israel’s demand for all Iranian and Hizballah forces to quit the de-escalation zone along the Syrian-Israeli border. Our military sources take the fact that Putin did not meet this demand as indicating that his clout for achieving this in Tehran and Beirut is limited.

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https://www.debka.com/

Nov 26, 2017

 

Netanyahu warns Assad thru Moscow: Don’t let Iran have bases

 

Syrian military targets will be attacked if you let Iran set up bases in Syria, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned Syrian ruler Bashar Assad via Moscow. This was reported Sunday night, Nov. 26 by senior officials in Jerusalem. The Israeli message, in an effect an ultimatum, notified the Syrian ruler that if he allowed Iran to establish bases in his country, Israel would abandon its policy of non-intervention in the Syrian war, which it has upheld throughout the entire six-year conflict, and not hesitate to strike at the Syrian army and other targets buttressing his regime in Damascus.

This is the first time Israel has ever sent an ultimatum to the Assad regime.

According to Jerusalem sources, it was conveyed through Russian intermediaries. They did not specify who those intermediaries were, but other sources put forward the names of Nikolai Patrushev, Russian National Security Adviser, or Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

DEBKAfile’s military sources add that Netanyahu took this pre-emptive step after learning that Tehran is pressing Assad to make available for its use the T-4 Tiyas Military Airbase, which is located between Homs and Palmyra. T-4 is Syria’s largest air force facility. It had become evident that the Trump administration has no intention of making any moves in Syria to prevent Iran’s military establishment in the country and had washed its hands of Syria in general.

Moscow made it clear that the Iranian presence was at the invitation of the Assad regime, and therefore legitimate. Therefore, Israel saw that to save itself from being presented with this peril establishing itself just across its northern body, it would have to take matters in its own hands.