Russia preparing to keep Iranian military in Syria away from Israel border, claim Israeli officials

Jerusalem: Russia has made preparations to keep the Iranian military and the pro-Iran groups away from the Israeli border. Russia is concerned that if this does not happen, Israel will continue to carry out scathing attacks on the Iranian locations and the Syrian conflict will intensify. Therefore, Russia will be discussing with Israel to reduce the Iranian influence in Syria, claimed the Israeli newspapers. Indicating that it will not be accepting the Russian demand, Iran has continued its military activities in Syria.

In the month of November last year, Russia, the United States and Jordan had negotiated a ceasefire in the north-west border region of Syria. But the Iranian military, taking advantage of this ceasefire, had built a base just 5 kilometres away from the Israeli border. Israel had objected to this Iranian military base, which is close to the Israel controlled Golan border.

Prime Minister Netanyahu had raised this point in his meeting with President Putin, during his visit to Russia. Prime Minister Netanyahu had warned that the Iranian military activities in Syria is violation of the Red Line and if there is an attack on Israel from these military base, Israel will not be responsible for the consequences.

The Israeli Prime Minister had demanded that either the Iranian military should be altogether withdrawn from Syria or should be kept at a minimum distance of 60 kilometres from the Golan border of Israel. But the Russian President had dismissed this Israeli demand and had justified the Iranian deployment.

However, within the next few days there were rocket attacks in the Israeli Golan region following which Israel carried out strong attacks on the locations of the Iranian military, Hezbollah and other allied groups. In the last three months, Israel has carried out at least five attacks on the Iranian locations and Israel has declared that these attacks on the Iranian locations in Syria will continue.

The Israeli attacks can intensify the conflict in Syria. While speaking to the press, the Israeli diplomats and military officials claimed that Russia is concerned that these attacks will further jeopardize the Assad regime in Syria. This is the reason that Russia has agreed to reduce the Iranian activities near the Israeli border, informed the officials.

Russia has not reacted to this news published in the Israeli newspaper. But the announcement by the Russian President about Syria a few days ago raised questions about the deployment of the Iranian military in Syria. Making an announcement that except the Syrian army, all other foreign armies should withdraw from Syria, he had indicated that the Iranian deployment will not last for a long time. There were reports that the Israeli attacks carried out on the Iranian bases in Syria two weeks ago had received support from Russia too.

Meanwhile, Iran has blatantly refused to withdraw its military from Syria. Ali Shamkhani, the Secretary of the ‘Security Council’ has announced that the Iranian military will continue to stay as an advisor in Syria without paying any heed to the demands of any country.