Liberman was responding to comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who said that Iranian presence in Syria was “legitimate.”
BY ANNA AHRONHEIM, MICHAEL WILNER, JPOST NOV 15, 2017 15:33
efense Minister Avigdor Liberman responded to comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday that Iran’s presence in Syria was legitimate.
Liberman warned that Israel maintains freedom of action in Syria and will not allow Iranian entrenchment to infiltrate the war-torn country.
“We maintain absolute freedom of action, and the only considerations that guide us are the security considerations of Israel,” he said at the end of a two-day tour in northern Israel accompanied by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and the commanders of the Bashan and Galilee Division.
“With regards to Iran, we will simply not allow for Shi’ite consolidation and Iranian entrenchment in Syria, nor will we allow Syria to become a forward operating base against the State of Israel,” Liberman said. “Anyone who has yet to understand that is advised to do so.”
He was responding to comments made by Lavrov, who called Iran’s presence in Syria “legitimate,” after reports of a deal brokered with Washington suggested Moscow thought otherwise. Lavrov was quoted by RIA News Agency as saying Russia never promised the United States that Iran and Iranian-backed forces such as Hezbollah would withdraw from Syria.
A White House delegation of national security officials is currently in Israel to discuss the matter.
“We have an important strategic strong collaborative relationship with Israel, and US government delegations routinely visit Israel to coordinate on a wide range of issues,” a National Security Council spokesman told The Jerusalem Post. “During this visit, US officials will meet with Israeli counterparts to discuss regional security issues, including Syria.”
White House officials declined to offer a readout of their meetings or a list of participants in the US delegation.
But Iran’s presence in Syria along Israel’s border, and contiguous with the Lebanese-Israeli border, are expected to dominate the discussions.
Previewing the Trump administration’s comprehensive strategy on Iran last month, US officials warned that Tehran was attempting to build a “bridge” through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon, where its most powerful proxy militia, Hezbollah, resides.
The Shi’ite extremist group is entrenched in southern Lebanon along Israel’s northern territory.
As an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Moscow finds itself part of an alliance between Damascus and Tehran.
Russia, which views Iran as a key player in resolving the crisis in Syria, has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the role that the Islamic Republic plays in the war-torn country.
Moscow intervened in the Syrian conflict in September 2015 for Assad, and officials from Israel and Russia have met regularly since then to discuss “deconflicting” their forces operating in proximity to avoid accidental clashes.
In recent months, Israel has held talks with Moscow, Washington and Amman in an attempt to ensure that the agreement would define the buffer zone some 40 km. from Israel’s borders.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly criticized the US-Russian cease-fire deal in Syria, saying it does not include any provisions to stop Iranian expansion in the area.
“Iran is scheming to entrench itself militarily in Syria,” Netanyahu told a Jewish gathering in Los Angeles via satellite on Tuesday. “They want to create a permanent air, land and sea military presence, with the declared intent of using Syria as a base from which to destroy Israel. We are not going to agree to that. I have said very clearly that Israel will work to stop this.”
Tensions have spiked in recent months as Islamic State terrorists have lost their ground in Syria, creating vacuums for foreign control.
Israeli satellite images show that Tehran is building long-term military installations in the country. And a decision by Saudi Arabian leadership to interject itself into Lebanese politics by confronting Hezbollah has increased fears that war is imminent.
Last month, Liberman met with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, who reportedly told the Israelis that Moscow would agree to expand the buffer zone along the Israel-Syria border, and Iranian and Hezbollah forces will not be allowed to enter a 10- to 15-km. radius.
But according to reports, the new cease-fire agreement would allow for Iranian troops to remain some 5 km. from Israel’s border in some areas, far less than Israel demanded. This has led officials to scramble and get better terms for the deal.
Last week, Eisenkot secretly flew to Brussels to meet with the head of the US Army’s European Command, Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti, where the two discussed Iranian moves in Syria.
As the war in Syria seems to be winding down in Assad’s favor due to Moscow’s intervention, Israel fears Iran will help Hezbollah produce accurate precision- guided missiles and help Hezbollah and other Shi’ite militias to strengthen their foothold in the Golan Heights.
On Tuesday, Liberman accused the Finance Ministry of stalling to fund the implementation of a 2014 government decision to increase protection for the home front, especially communities in the North, which he said was severely lacking compared with those in the South.
“We are dealing with a matter that is ‘net life,’” Liberman said, urging local authorities to demand that the government implement decisions taken in 2014 to allocate NIS 150 million annually for 10 years to close the protection gaps throughout the country.
The border area with Lebanon has been flagged by the IDF as vulnerable to enemy infiltrations and has seen nine infiltrations since 2009.
The IDF believes the next war with Hezbollah will see the terrorist group try and bring the fight to the home front by infiltrating Israeli communities to inflict significant civilian and military casualties and stoke terror.
@ Felix Quigley:
I’m so sorry to say that I believe that you are right about the present Israeli leadership. Even another fake Moshiach might be welcome now…
I do not doubt your strategy but I do not think there is any leadership of the Jews except pone that brings disaster.
I fought alone here on Israpundit on this Assad issue. I am no fan of any Arab but I saw or foresaw what has happened and for that I was ridiculed right here. I remain bitter. Nobody spoke up and Sherman too was silent all were silent. Yet there was only the one way out no other.
@ Felix Quigley:
I wrote many times that Israel should chose Assad from the welter, because he and his father, after a good lesson, kept the border quiet. No other reason. As for my being an armchair general, similar tactics have been honed and used elsewhere in other climes by great captains. Read Major-General C.W. Robinson’s great textbook titled ” Wellington’s Campaigns in The Peninsula 1808-14, with Moore’s Campaign to Corunna”.. I believe that was the name of the text I had to study, and you’ll find somrthing like my suggestion in those 3 thick volumes. All 26 maps and other sketches too. I am a lifelong keen military student with only a little military experience.
Liddell Hart, one of the great between Wars strategists was just a captain. ….
As for your suggested outcomes, Hezbollah would be only able to offer comparatively feeble defence to it’s rear, with everything pointed to the front. I DID mention that it would be a SURPRISE attack….??
Russia would be afraid of the US, the US would NEVER attack Jewish Israel, therefore the UN and the EU would be piddling in their pants at the thought……. to do this just because of the Hezballah terrorists, who permanently threaten Israel…not on your life. You’re dreaming man…
When you see the armchair generals you see danger but the biggest danger is there is nobody in Israel to act
It is too late for that type of thing
Hezbollah has rockets
Russia the same
America might strike Israel
The EU
The UN
You need revolutionaries to lead Israel and you have opportunists
My point above is that it took real courage to defend Assad back then now it is too late
You also lack courage and you have only big plans because you cannot address the truth in what I said about Assad
@ woolymammoth:
Elsewhere on this blog I suggested that Israel could launch a surprise attack from Kiryat Shmona area straight to the sea, then turn south, roll up the Hezballah emplacements from behind, where the defences are weaker, in fact fill them with pumped in sea water, all the way back to the border and retain it permanently to the Litani River. It was supposed to be part of Israel originally before they started messing around with the San Remo details.. .
To clarify even further for you dimwits led by Yamit
The main mistake you made was that you overlooked that Assad did have a constituency behind him. the repressed Alawites, the repressed Christians, and even secular type Muslims who feared Islam in the raw.
You also overlooked that Russia had a rightful fear of US Imperialism.
So Russia acted. That was the main thing.
You also overlooked that Russia was still Stalinist and therefore Antisemitic, could not give tuppence about Israel.
Israel led by dopes, and you dopes forgot all of that. Big mistake. Israel is now very vulnerable and Martin Sherman will be agreeing very soon just how vulnerable
You live totally in a fools paradise if you imagine Israel, this spineless Israel, to do that.
The mistake you all made was that you thought Sadat would just wait and be destroyed like Saddam and Gadhafi.
YOUR mistake not anybody else!
Israel needs to re-aquire Southern Lebanon and give it the same status, as Golan. Then Iran.
What I can see in this report, and others, is that the distance between the Israeli border and the bloodthirsty enemies is shrinking step by step with every report coming out. From 50K down now to 5 K. Israel is lagging, and seems the subservient partner in the conferences, depending on the opinions of the others. Israel should be taking the lead in the conferences and declaring what she is going to do if the situation doesn’t reverse itself pronto[ showing that… ”
……..we’re small but too prickly to grasp”.
Lieberman’s announcements are purely for public consumption and not any indication of what’s really going on. A combination of bluster and baloney. (kosher baloney).
Are we going to sit and gawk whilst Iran installs itself comfortably and unassailably right at our doorstep, preparing for the Little Satan…….???
Like we did when Sadat was filling the Sinai with attack troops and equipment…”just a training exercise”