Ahead of Putin Meeting, Netanyahu Warns of Iranian Base in Syria

March 6, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Monday, 06 March 2017 | Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced yesterday during the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting that he would be heading to Moscow on Thursday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The main objective of the get-together, Netanyahu said, was to reach “specific understandings” between Jerusalem and Moscow to prevent Iran from setting up a permanent military position in Syria and using the war-torn country as a base from which to launch operations against Israel.

Netanyahu warned Israeli lawmakers that Tehran was aiming to exploit the current efforts to hammer out a political agreement in Syria to establish a military foothold on Israel’s doorstep.

“In the framework of a (future peace agreement) or without one, Iran is attempting to base itself permanently in Syria—either through a military presence on the ground or a naval presence—and also through a gradual attempt to open a front against us on the Golan Heights,” the prime minister explained.

Netanyahu said that he plans to “express to President Putin Israel’s strong and resolute opposition to this possibility” during Thursday’s meeting.

“I hope that we can reach specific understandings in order to decrease possible friction between our forces and theirs [Russia’s], as we did successfully until now,” Netanyahu added.

Over the past six years of civil war, Tehran has remained Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s closest ally, providing militia fighters as well as aid to the dictator who has earned himself the nickname “The Butcher of Damascus.”

Russia is also considered a supporter of Assad. Since its intervention in the Syrian civil war started two years ago, Moscow has forged close ties of cooperation with Tehran to keep the Syrian president’s regime from toppling—and to guard and maintain both countries’ interests in the war-torn nation.

Moreover, Russia is considered the main role player when it comes to clinching a deal regarding Syria’s future, Reuters reports. Last week, the first United Nations (UN) sponsored peace talks in over a year concluded in Geneva without the parties concerned agreeing on any workable steps going forward.

In the past, Netanyahu has called in Russia’s assistance as Israel has attempted to stop Iran from using the civil war raging in Syria as a cover to supply Hezbollah, Tehran’s terror proxy in Lebanon, with state-of-the-art weapons to attack the Jewish state. During a visit to Moscow in June 2016, Netanyahu told Russian media outlets that, “Iran will not be allowed, using Hezbollah, to use Syrian territory to attack us and open up another terrorist front against us in the Golan,” The Times of Israel reports.

Over the past six years of civil war in Syria, Israeli leaders have warned against Tehran’s growing foothold in the region, through the presence of its own Revolutionary Guards fighting alongside Assad’s forces, or through its Shi’ite Muslim proxies in the area, particularly Hezbollah, Reuters explains.

Netanyahu’s announcement of his meeting with Putin comes two days after Iran announced on Friday that thousands of their missiles have the capacity to rain down on Israel. According to the Islamic Republic’s semi-official Fars News Agency, a senior Iranian army commander, Brigadier General Fereidoun Nouri vowed on Friday night, “All the facilities of the Zionist regime are within the range of our missiles. The criminal, Israel, should know that…we can destroy their defense shield within an hour by firing several thousand missiles and raze down the fake regime to the ground forever.”

Threatening Israel with destruction seems to be one of Iranian leaders’ strategies de jour. Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is particularly fond of using his official Twitter account to vow the annihilation of the Jewish state. Moreover, over the past few months alone an Iranian senior military commander bragged that Tehran could “raze the Zionist regime in less than eight minutes,” while another boasted that the Islamic Republic could turn Israeli cities Tel Aviv and Haifa into dust. In December 2016, Iran’s defense minister also joined the choir of annihilation, declaring that Tehran could “destroy” both Israel and the smaller Gulf Arab states.

Posted on March 6, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 06 March 2017)

Photo Credit: GPO/Haim Zach