BICOM

A delegation of senior Israeli security officials will visit Washington this week to hold talks on the civil war in Syria.

Yossi Cohen, head of the Israeli external intelligence agency Mossad, will lead the delegation, which will include IDF head of Military Intelligence, Major-General Herzl Halevi, and head of the Defence Ministry’s political-security department, Zohar Palti.

The Israeli delegation are expected to meet senior US administration officials including National Security Adviser HR McMaster, Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell and the President Trump’s Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt.

The talks will focus on Israeli security priorities vis-a-vis Syria and Lebanon, according to a White House official, and will not deal with the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

In a security cabinet meeting on 1 August, Cohen briefed Israeli ministers that the ceasefire agreement for southern Syria brokered by the US and Russia at last month’s G20 summit has yet to be finalised, and Israel is working with the relevant parties to improve the agreement.

The main unresolved issues include who would guarantee the arrangements in the de-escalation zones, prevent the entry of Iranian, Hezbollah or Shi’ite militia forces, and monitoring of the cease-fire.

Israel is concerned that the agreement in its current form will allow the entrenchment of Iranian, Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias in Syria, particularly in the regions of Deraa and Suweida, along the Jordanian border, as well as Quneitra, near the border between Syria and the Israeli Golan Heights.

A senior Israeli official said the delegation visiting Washington this week would likely try and convince US administration officials that parts of the cease-fire agreement should be amended to rectify these concerns.

A US delegation including Greenblatt and Jared Kushner are expected to arrive in the region to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process at the end of August.