Iranian forces pull back in Syria
Israel says withdrawal is insufficient and demands that Iran exit Syria entirely
Iranian forces withdrew their heavy weapons in Syria to a distance of 85km from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, TASS quoted a Russian envoy as saying yesterday, but Israel deemed the pullback inadequate.
Backed by Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite militia, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has retaken territory in southern-western Syria from rebels, closing in on Occupied Golan.
Moscow has sought to reassure Israel by saying it wants only Syrian forces to deploy on or near Occupied Golan. Israel, however, insists that forces controlled by Iran exit Syria entirely now that the civil war there is ending. “The Iranians withdrew and the Shiite formations are not there,” TASS news agency quoted Alexander Lavrentiev, President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy to Syria, as saying.
Lavrentiev said Iranian service personnel whom he described as advisers could be among Syrian army forces who remain closer to the Occupied Golan. “But there are no units of heavy equipment and weapons that could pose a threat to Israel at a distance of 85km from the line of demarcation,” Lavrentiev said.
An Israeli official deemed such a pullback insufficient.
“What we have laid down as a red line is military intervention and entrenchment by Iran in Syria, and not necessarily on our border,” Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Israel Radio, citing the longer-range threat posed by Iranian missiles or drones in Syria.
Last week, an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Russia had offered to keep Iranian forces at least 100km from the Occupied Golan Heights ceasefire line. Israel rejected the offer, made during a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. In an apparent riposte, Russia’s ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, said on Monday that Moscow could not compel Iran to leave Syria.
But Viktorov also signalled Russia would continue to turn a blind eye to Israeli air strikes against suspected Iranian and Hezbollah arms transfers or emplacements in Syria.