Lavrov in Israel

by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org - Home - Stephen Lendman)

On Monday, Sergey Lavrov and Russia's Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov met with Netanyahu, Israeli war minister Avigdor Lieberman, the regime's national security council head Meir Ben-Shabbat, and IDF chief of staff Gen. Gady Eisenkot.

Last Sunday, Netanyahu announced the meeting, saying "(t)he (Russian) delegation is arriving at the request of President Putin, in a conversation we had days ago," adding:

"I will present the Russian delegation with the same stance I presented President Putin with during my last visit to Moscow: Israel insists the (1974) disengagement agreement with Syria be honored, as it was honored for decades before the Syrian civil war (sic), and Israel will continue to act against any attempt by Iran or its proxies to establish military bases in Syria."

None exist. Iranian military advisors operate from Syrian bases. Netanyahu knows it but pretends otherwise to stoke conflict with Damascus.

Iran's presence in Syria, along with Hezbollah forces, threaten US/NATO/Israeli supported terrorists alone, not the Jewish state or any other country.

According to an unnamed Israeli source, Lavrov shifted Russia's position on Iranian military advisors in Syria somewhat from weeks earlier when he said the following:

The  notion that "Iran must leave and everything will click into place, (meaning) Syria but also…the entire region (is) absolutely unrealistic," adding:

"It is impossible to" resolve regional problems without Iranian involvement. Middle East countries with issues needing resolution "should sit down at the negotiating table, state their concerns and start talking on how they can remove them on a mutually acceptable basis." 

"There is no other way. It is necessary to act in the same vein as regards the settlement in Syria or any other problem in this volatile region."

Reportedly on Monday, he offered to compromise with Israel, saying he'd work with Syria and Tehran to distance Iranian military advisors to around 100 km from Israeli occupied Golan.

The Netanyahu regime unacceptably demanded the elimination of an Iranian and Hezbollah presence in Syria entirely - something Damascus rejects. So do Russia and Tehran as long as Assad values their involvement in combating US/NATO/Israeli-supported terrorists.

Israel and Washington want Syria and Iran isolated and weakened, vulnerable to attack and regime change.

Earlier Netanyahu warned Israeli forces would continue striking Syrian targets - naked aggression by any standard, prolonging conflict, preventing resolution, along with no letup in US-led terror-bombing and unlawful presence of its forces in northeast and southwest Syria.

A Final Comment

Syria's Foreign Ministry blasted the Netanyahu regime's transport of White Helmet "criminal(s)," posing as civil defense workers, from southern Syria to Israeli occupied Golan en route to Jordan, from there for resettlement in Europe and Canada.

Involvement by Washington, Britain, Jordan, Germany and Canada with Israel shows these countries "back terrorists in Syria" they pretend to oppose.

Russia's Foreign Ministry also slammed the illegal transfer, accusing White Helmets of involvement in "the most odious provocations" in Syria, adding:

"The organization concentrated its operations exclusively in the areas controlled by Islamic radicals, forging overt fakes that would be used as pretexts for charges against the Syrian authorities."

"The Helmets had a particular fancy for shooting the propagandistic clips, which the Western media and social networks would circulate endlessly," the ministry explained.

"It's quite emblematic that the White Helmets preferred to flee Syria with foreign assistance, thus unmasking their essence and hypocrisy to the whole world."

"As if acting out the principle 'an uneasy conscience betrays itself,' these people showed in a most graphic way whose orders they had been fulfilling and whose money they had existed on."

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