BICOM

The US and Russian national security advisers clashed over Iran at the first-ever trilateral meeting between US, Russian and Israeli national security advisers in Jerusalem yesterday.

Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council, rejected the US and Israeli view that Iran represents “the main threat to regional security,” arguing instead that: “Iran is contributing a lot to fighting terrorists on the Syrian soil and stabilising the situation there.” Patrushev said Moscow is aware of Israel’s security concerns over Iran’s military presence in Syria and was working to address the issue with Tehran, but added that Israeli airstrikes in Syria were “undesirable”.

Speaking about the incident where Iran shot down a US drone, Patrushev said the Russian Defence Ministry believed the aircraft had entered Iranian airspace. The US insisted that the drone was in international airspace when it was shot down.

The Times of Israel reported this morning that US National Security Advisor John Bolton disputed Patrushev’s view about Iranian troops in Syria, saying: “The Russians have said repeatedly that they would like to see Iranian forces leave,” Bolton said, citing comments made by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent meeting in Moscow.

Discussing the escalation between the US and Iran in the Gulf, Bolton said: “They’ll either get the point or as the president said, we will enhance the maximum pressure campaign further.” When asked whether a military strike was still an option if Iran crosses the 300-kilogram uranium stockpile threshold of the JCPOA nuclear agreement, Bolton said it would be: “A very serious mistake for Iran to ignore those limits … all options are on the table”.

Israel’s National Security Adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, said: “The attainment of security and stability in our region is our common goal. It will be unattainable without reining in Iran’s aspirations and actions. Recent events underscore this conclusion, which must be taken into account in any outline for an agreement.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he, President Putin, and President Donald Trump, “Would like to see a peaceful, stable and secure Syria”. He also said that all three officials at the meeting had a shared goal: “No foreign forces that arrived in Syria after 2011 remain in Syria.”