{"id":6603,"date":"2017-08-23T09:36:23","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T09:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/?p=6603"},"modified":"2017-08-23T09:36:34","modified_gmt":"2017-08-23T09:36:34","slug":"israelis-fail-to-secure-us-guarantees-on-iranian-threat-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/23\/israelis-fail-to-secure-us-guarantees-on-iranian-threat-in-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Israelis fail to secure US guarantees on Iranian threat in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

US officials reportedly refrained from pledging to insist on the the removal of pro-Iranian militias at Israel\u2019s border with Syria.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Israel remains concerned about\u00a0Iran\u2019s military buildup in southern Syria<\/a>, at\u00a0Israel\u2019s northern border, despite high-level discussions between US and Israeli security officials in Washington last week.<\/p>\n

The Israeli delegation that visited Washington included Yossi Cohen, head of Mossad\u00a0and\u00a0IDF Military Intelligence. The team, which met with US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell, Chief Negotiator\u00a0Jason Greenblatt and others, was reportedly discouraged by the position taken by the US<\/a> on Syria.<\/p>\n

The delegation was sent to the US to warn against the military deployments by Hezbollah, Iranian forces and the Syrian regime, and to tell the US \u201cexactly what is going on there,\u201d according to officials. Such a military buildup\u00a0directly threatens Israel.<\/p>\n

Trump Administration\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Lack of Clear Position\u2019<\/h2>\n

Israeli media reports noted that the delegation shared \u201csensitive, credible and deeply troubling intelligence,\u201d showing the expanding deployment of pro-Iranian forces in Syria, which estimates put at 500 Iranian army soldiers, 5,000 Hezbollah terrorists and several thousand guerrillas from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.<\/p>\n

American officials reportedly refrained from pledging\u00a0to insist on the removal of all pro-Iranian militias from Syria in the ceasefire talks currently underway with Russia.\u00a0Delegation members noted \u201ca kind of embarrassment and lack of a clear position\u201d among Trump administration officials regarding America\u2019s commitments in Syria and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The Israeli report noted concern that\u00a0the US could\u00a0be hamstrung on the Syrian issue due to \u201cthe domestic problems President Trump is currently mired in, as well as the crisis with North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Netanyahu to Discuss Developments with Putin<\/h2>\n

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, to discuss developments in the region, according to a statement by the Prime Minister\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Russia is a signatory to the ceasefire agreement signed during the G20 summit in July between the US and Jordan, according to which\u00a0Moscow is responsible for ensuring that forces under its influence\u2014the Syrian regime, Iran and Iranian proxies\u2014abide by its terms.<\/p>\n

The unresolved issues include who would guarantee the arrangements in the de-escalation zones<\/a>, prevent the entry of Iranian, Hezbollah or Shi\u2019ite militia forces, and monitor the ceasefire, and are expected to be high on the agenda for the Netanyahu-Putin meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has no objection to a (peace) agreement in Syria, but we are firmly opposed to such an agreement<\/a> in which Iran and its proxies will be left with a military presence in Syria,\u201d Netanyahu told Putin in May.<\/p>\n

By: World Israel News Staff
\nWith files from The Tower via BICOM<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US officials reportedly refrained from pledging to insist on the the removal of pro-Iranian militias at Israel\u2019s border with Syria.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-politics","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6603"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6605,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6603\/revisions\/6605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/egretnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}