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Russian and Israeli officers to discuss Southern Syria offensive
Israeli and Russian officers will today discuss details of the planned Syrian military operation to retake control of the Syrian side of the Golan border, from the area of Quneitra in the north to Daraa in the south.
The joint Russian-Israeli military committee will meet today as part of Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s visit to Moscow. Russian media have reported that Russian officers will share its military plans with Israeli colleagues, including maps, as part of an effort to prevent Iran-Israel tensions from spiralling into outright war. The Russian sources said that Hezbollah and Iranian forces would be kept away from the Syrian-Russia military activity near the Golan border and would not play any role.
Lieberman said before departing to Moscow that Israel’s primary goal is to prevent the entrenchment of Iran and its allies in Syria. His delegation included Director of Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Tamir Heiman and Director of the Political-Security Office in the Defence Ministry Zohar Palti. He will meet today with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu in Moscow.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of the Israeli Security Cabinet yesterday that he spoke with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and urged the US administration to demand that Iranian forces leave Syria. Russian state media agency TASS quoted Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterating that foreign militias should leave southwestern Syria as soon as possible.
Israel demands that all non-Syrian units in the Syrian army – such as the brigade of pro-Iranian volunteers in the Fifth Division – not be deployed near the Golan Heights. Israel also calls for UN peacekeeping forces to be redeployed along the Israeli-Syrian border and that the terms of 1974 disengagement and armistice agreement should be restored.
Alex Fishman in Yediot Ahronot says the US administration has explicitly warned Syria not to carry out any military activity until the Syrian regime undertook to accept the agreement to turn the area along the Jordanian border into a “combat-free zone”.