BICOM

CIA Director John Brennan paid a surprise visit to Israel on Thursday evening and went straight into a meeting with Israel’s Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon in Tel Aviv.

Channel Ten reported that the pair shared intelligence assessments, discussed regional threats including Iran’s nuclear programme and that Ya’alon reiterated to Brennan that Israel “will not permit the transfer of weapons” to Hezbollah via Syria. Two weeks ago, an air strike, assumed to be carried out by Israel, targeted military installations near Damascus where sophisticated Iranian weaponry was being stored before being transferred to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syrian officials have threatened a response to future strikes, but an unnamed Israeli official was quoted by the New York Times yesterday warning that Syrian retaliation would precipitate the downfall of President Assad’s regime.

Brennan’s visit was not announced publicly ahead of time, but Yediot Ahronot reports that in addition to Ya’alon, Brennan also met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Mossad head Tamir Pardo. Brennan’s visit comes just days after Prime Minister Netanyahu met with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. It was reported that Netanyahu urged Putin to drop a proposed sale of an S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria, which is capable of intercepting aircraft at a range of over sixty miles and could challenge Israel’s air superiority in the region. Apparently, Netanyahu warned that should the Assad regime utilise the sophisticated system against Israeli aircraft, it “is likely to draw us into a response, and could send the region deteriorating into war.”

Although Putin has given no direct public response, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday indicated that the arms sale to Syria would go ahead, commenting, “We’ve already carried out some of the deal… and we will carry the rest of it out in full.”