Israel seeks Syria deal with Russia
Jerusalem willing to tolerate Bashar al-Assad, if Moscow persuades Tehran to back off
JERUSALEM— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured Russia on Wednesday that Israel would not seek to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom Moscow has been backing in a seven-year civil war.
But Jerusalem said Moscow should encourage Iranian forces to quit Syria, a senior Israeli official said.
Drone shot down
Netanyahu conveyed the message in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the official said, just hours after Israel shot down a Syrian drone that penetrated its airspace.
Israeli worries
Israel worries Assad could let his Iranian and Hezbollah reinforcements entrench near Israeli lines or that Syrian forces may defy a 1974 Golan demilitarization.
“They (Russia) have an active interest in seeing a stable Assad regime and we in getting the Iranians out. These can clash or it can align,” said the Israeli official on condition of anonymity.
“We won’t take action against the Assad regime, and you get the Iranians out,” the official quoted Netanyahu as telling Putin in Moscow.
But David Keyes, a Netanyahu spokesperson, denied that the prime minister made the remarks and said Israel’s policy was not to get involved involved in the Syrian Civil War.
But the Reuters source said Russia was working to distance Iranian forces from the Golan and proposed that they be kept 80 kilometers away but this fell short of Israel’s demand for their full exit along with that of Tehran-sponsored militias.
Russian response
Russian officials had no immediate comment on the meeting, but Moscow has turned a blind eye to scores of Israeli air strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah positions since 2015.