BICOM

Details of the Israeli security cabinet’s meeting on Sunday to discuss the ceasefire in southern Syria negotiated by the U.S. and Russia have emerged.

According to Haaretz, a large part of the four hour meeting, which was also attended by IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, Mossad head Yossi Cohen and several senior figures in the military, the Foreign Ministry and the Defence Ministry, focused on the de-escalation zones to be established as part of the agreement on the Syria-Israel border and Syria-Jordan border.

The cabinet was reportedly briefed that the U.S. and Russia are yet to finalise all of the elements of the cease-fire and that Israel is working with the relevant parties to improve the agreement.

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

Israel’s key concerns remain keeping Iran, Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias away from the Israeli and Jordanian border, and stopping Iran from gaining a foothold in Syria. On 16 July, after his meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Israel opposes the ceasefire agreement in southern Syria because it perpetuates the Iranian presence in the country.

The ceasefire plan was announced on Friday 7 July at the G20 summit in Germany, after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. It affects the regions of Deraa and Suweida, along the Jordanian border, as well as Quneitra, near the border between Syria and the Israeli Golan Heights.