| | | Date: May 29, 2018 | | |  |  |
| | Only Syrian army should be on southern border: Russia | MOSCOW/BEIRUT: Russia said Monday only Syrian army troops should be on the country’s southern border with Jordan and Israel, after the U.S. warned of “firm measures” over truce violations in the region.
Rebels control stretches of southwest Syria, bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while Syrian army troops and allied Iran-backed militias hold nearby terrain.
Washington has voiced concern about reports of an impending Syrian army offensive in a “de-escalation zone” in the southwest, warning that it would respond to breaches.
“Of course, the withdrawal of all non-Syrian forces must be carried out on a mutual basis, this should be a two-way street,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference in Monday.
“The result of this work which should continue and is continuing should be a situation when representatives of the Syrian Arab Republic’s army stand at Syria’s border with Israel,” he said.
Jordan also said it was discussing south Syria with Washington and Moscow, and all three agreed on the need to preserve the cease-fire, which reduced violence since they brokered it last year.
“We are closely watching developments and will protect our national security,” the Jordanian official said of the “fluid” situation in southern Syria.
Jordan has long been worried about the presence of Iranian-backed militias along its border, as has Israel.
Israel raised the alarm about Iran’s expanding clout in the 7-year-old conflict, calling for its archfoe to be denied any military presence in Syria. Washington has also demanded Tehran withdraw all forces under its command from Syria.
“We believe that there is no place for any Iranian military presence, anywhere in Syria,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his parliamentary faction Monday.
He also said he would press German and French leaders next week to support his position that Iran should have no military presence in neighboring Syria. Netanyahu will travel to Germany and France for talks expected to focus on the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal – long sought by Israel – and the Iranian presence in Syria.
He will meet French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the June 4-6 trip. Netanyahu said he may also meet British Prime Minister Theresa May.
Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman will meet Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow Thursday.
This month, Israel said it launched intensive airstrikes in Syria after what it described as Iranian rocket fire from the south into the Golan.
A senior Israeli official made clear that Netanyahu’s government would not deem the exclusion of Iranian forces from the border region sufficient.
“When you consider the advanced weapon systems – surface to surface missiles and anti-aircraft systems – that the Iranians want to deploy in Syria, it becomes clear that they must be prevented from doing so in all of Syria and not only within a limited distance from the Israeli border,” Chagai Tzuriel, director-general of the intelligence ministry, told Reuters.
Moscow, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s ally, brokered a string of de-escalation zones for insurgent enclaves last year, though fighting raged on in some.
With the support of Russia and Iran, the Syrian army mounted an offensive on the Eastern Ghouta enclave and seized it in April.
The southwest region is home to tens of thousands of people and forms a center of the insurgency.
Syrian state media has reported leaflet drops on rebel territory there urging fighters to accept government rule, and a U.K.-based monitor has reported army movements into the south – two signs of a potential military offensive. |
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