Date: Aug 31, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Israel says won’t be bound by postwar deals on Syria Agence France Presse OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday that Israel will not be bound by whatever agreements the international community may reach on Syria after its civil war. Speaking on a visit to the Israeli border with Lebanon, Lieberman said his government would scrupulously observe existing agreements with Syria, with which it also shares a frontier. Government forces have been massing around Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib in recent days and look poised to launch what could be the last major battle of the 7-year-old war. “We see various gatherings here and there; in Ankara, in Tehran, in Geneva, in other places too. “They are talking about redesigning Syria after the battle for Idlib,” Lieberman said in English. “As far as the state of Israel is concerned, with all respect and appreciation for all agreements and all understandings, they are not binding on us,” the Israeli minister said. “What obligates us are solely the security interests of the State of Israel,” he added. “All other understandings and agreements that are reached in all kinds of places are simply irrelevant from our point of view. “We shall observe to the letter all previous agreements.” After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Israel and Syria agreed an armistice which included a demilitarized border zone. The two sides have never signed a formal peace treaty. Turkey, Russia and fellow regime backer Iran all operate “observation points” in Idlib as part of a “de-escalation” deal agreed last year that was meant to reduce bloodshed in the province. Israel has stayed out of the protracted civil war but insists that Iran, the Jewish state’s arch-foe, withdraw its forces from Syria, which it sees as a threat.