Putin warns Israel off targeting Iranian targets in Syria
Source: Putin warns Israel off targeting Iranian targets in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned about Israel’s repeated attacks in Syria, he said, after talking for an hour and-a-half with President Barack Obama early Tuesday, Sept. 29, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Putin agreed that Israel’s security concerns must be taken into account in Syria, but he was worried by the IDF’s periodic strikes on positions in the embattled territory.
Sunday night, the IDF hit Syrian military targets with powerful Tamuz artillery rockets after two errant Syrian rockets landed on the Golan.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that they hit the artillery command post of the Syrian army’s 90th Brigade, which is stationed outside Quneitra. Syrian and Lebanese sources say the Syrian deputy commander was injured.
The message the Russian president issued, straight after his meeting with Obama, was that Moscow would not put up with Israeli strikes in Syria, even in response to an attack.
This comment and the events leading up to it raise four questions:
1. Why did Putin take the trouble to respond in person to a trivial incident like a cross-border exchange of fire on the Golan directly after his highly-important talks with Obama?
2. Why was he so concerned by this incident? It occurred just a week after the Russian president and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had agreed in Moscow to set up a coordination mechanism to prevent clashes between IDF and Russian forces. And in any case Russian forces were not involved.
3. What was behind statement issued by Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon after the incident, in which he stressed with unusual emphasis Israel’s zero tolerance of Syrian rocket infractions of its sovereignty?
4. The two highly-charged statements were obviously occasioned by much more than errant cross-border fire from the Syrian side of the Golan.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that the answers to these conundrums are embodied in one individual, Brig. Gen. Saeed Azadi, of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, whose presence and operations in Syria are a closely guarded secret.
Or at least they were until Netanyahu let the cat out of the bag at his meeting with Putin last week at the Russian presidential residence outside Moscow. The prime minister disclosed his knowledge that Gen. Azadi had come to replace Gen. Ali Allah Dadi, who died on Jan 18 in an Israeli air strike against a convoy carrying Iranian Guards and Hizballah commanders traveling near Quneitra. They were there to survey a site for mounting a terrorist campaign inside Israel.
The Israeli air strike nipped this plan in the bud. But Iran and Hizballah never gave up, and Gen. Azadi was assigned to finish setting up the terror machine and getting it up and running.
A week ago, Netanyahu gave Putin notice that Israel would not let this happen – even if this meant disposing of another Iranian general.
The Russian leader explained that Israel’s attacks on Iranian military targets presented a problem because they weakened Bashar Assad.
As matter stand therefore, Russia and Israel are on a collision course: While Israel views Gen. Azadi as a menacing adversary, Putin regards him as part of the Russian-Iranian axis in Syria and wants Israel to keep its hands off him. This point is of such paramount importance to the Russian leader’s plans for Syria that he made a big deal of it at the highest international forum – almost as a sequel to his first meeting with President Obama in more than a year.
He was signaling strongly that the arrangement for the Russian and Israeli armies to coordinate their operations in Syria is unworkable and he was losing patience with Israel’s “security concerns” in so far as they impeded his plans with Iran for Syria.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: The Syrian rocket fire Friday and Saturday was not in fact “errant” as the IDF spokesman maintained. The rockets were fired on the orders of Iranian Brig. Azadi as a demonstration that Israel’s warning to Putin was a waste of time and he meant to go forward with his operation regardless. Netanyahu and Ya’alon conveyed their message of resistance to this operation by instructing the IDF to hit back with the Tamuz rocket, a system powerful enough to give the other side pause and present Putin with an unforeseen complication in his Syrian venture.
WarSclerotic 
September 29, 2015 at 3:00 PM
JW,
please verify that all this is true, because there is another article by DEBKA file in your web page that is a BLATANT LIE.
It is the one concerning the Liaoning being docked at the port of Tartus.
Completely impossible.
The Liaoning is docked in her homeport of Dalian, China.
As I said please double check your info, as you are the person responsible for this web page.
September 29, 2015 at 3:40 PM
“Israeli military coordination with Russia is meant to allow the IDF to operate in Syria and Lebanon if necessary – without the risk of unintended friction with Russian warplanes. – Harretz 9-29-2015
Still waiting for that hotline call from Putin to warn Israel of a potential conflict near the border. – LS
“Israel is concerned with the build-up of Iranian forces in Syria, near the border with Israel, National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Minister Yuval Steinitz (Likud) said in an interview with Army Radio on Tuesday.Steinitz’s comments came amid the recent addition of Russian troops to Syria to bolster President Bashar Assad in his fight against Islamic State and other rebel groups challenging his rule in Syria. However, the Likud minister was more concerned with the infusion of troops from Assad’s other central backer, Iran. “Nobody wants to see Russian forces in the area of the Golan Heights, but we definitely don’t want to see Iranian forces near Israel,” Steinitz told Army Radio.” – Koenig World Watch Daily 9-29-2015
The perfect storm…now Iran can build up its forces along Israel’s border under the cover of the Russian military who is also under the cover of a mission to save Assad’s Syria. – LS
“Russian military officers and planners were always focusing on fighting a conventional land-war against a regional adversary. Unconventional contingencies, such as a Chechen upraise, would not be the primarily interest of the army, but of the troops of the ministry of interior and other powerful ministries. If the Russian aim was be to conduct a major push-back operation against IS, it would have to deploy the troops of these power ministries in order to secure the rear and fight a counter-insurgency campaign in the regained Sunni areas. However, there are no indications (yet) that any of these ministries have been deployed for Syria. Therefore it is very unlikely that the Russian effort will substantially change the war. Russia will boost Assad’s military capabilities to hold on the territory his forces already control. But anything else would be a big surprise. Hence, Russia is not “ending” the war. More important to the Kremlin is to have a token for its own diplomatic offensive in the West.” – International Business Times 9-17-2015
I submit that Putin, the man of the hour who says he will save the Mideast has other intentions. Exactly what he has in mind is anyone’s guess. You can bet, however, his plans don’t include the welfare of the Jewish State. – LS
September 29, 2015 at 4:19 PM
You have said an important truth in your last sentence.of your very well written comments.Putin does not care about the welfare of the jews.As to his plans for Syria,he wants it as major military base for his military.Syria is strategic piece of real estate.From there he can monitor and and even control militarily the other countries in the region.I say he is going all out for all the Syrian territory.Unfortunately for the Jewish state,dangerous and dark days lie ahead.The Jews are basically alone,excepting God.Tremendous weakness and appeasement was shown during the nuclear negotiations with Iran by the U.S.-here is one of the many consequences that was to be expected.
September 29, 2015 at 4:37 PM
Russia is now engaged in two costly conflicts in terms of money and manpower. Meanwhile, the price for a barrel of oil is at 2005 levels hovering around $60 US. For countries that are highly dependent on oil revenue, I’d say they now have a good recipe for financial disaster. Let ’em stew in that for a while and see whose goose gets cooked.
September 29, 2015 at 8:29 PM
what about local production cost in the USA ?
And the trading in oil is changing from the petro dollar to other currency, slow but sure !
September 29, 2015 at 6:19 PM
Russian Incomes Drop by 4.9% in Economic Crisis:
“Overall, Russia’s GDP has fallen by 3.8% annually compared to 2014, and by 4.6% for August by comparison to last August. Russian car manufacturing is also down by 26% and housing construction, which had increased almost by a third in the first quarter as the government continued to make good on Putin’s populistic pledges, has now shrunk by 5.9% annually.”
-The Interpreter 9-29-2015
September 29, 2015 at 8:27 PM
The Average American Worker Earns Less Today Than 40 Years Ago
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051326/the-average-american-worker-earns-less-today-than-40-years-ago
September 29, 2015 at 8:33 PM
Putin: Meeting With Obama Was ‘Constructive and Surprisingly Frank’
As for today’s meeting, it was very useful and, what is particularly pleasant, it was very sincere. I think that our American partners explained their position quite clearly on many issues, including settling the situation in Ukraine and Syria, as well as the Middle East overall. Indeed, surprising as it may seem, we have many coinciding points and opinions about all these issues. We also have differences, which we have agreed to work on together. I hope that this work will be constructive.
…
Our conversation today, as I said, was very constructive, businesslike and surprisingly very frank. We found many things we shared, but there are also differences. Generally, everyone knows them and there is no need to go over them. In my view, there is a possibility to work together on common issues.
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/putin-meeting-obama-was-constructive-and-surprisingly-frank/ri10032
September 29, 2015 at 3:41 PM
According to Pravda…for what it’s worth:
Chinese Navy sets off for Syria (If it doesn’t breakdown en route.)
http://english.pravda.ru/news/world/25-09-2015/132137-china-0/
September 29, 2015 at 4:18 PM
Hi LS,
thanks for your info.
Just two points.
a) Yes, nobody knows what Putin has in mind.
That’s exactly why it is necessary to wait and see.
A military confrontation with Russia is NOT in Israel’s interest.
There’s always time for rectification… but it’ll be more difficult after foolish mistakes.
b) The info regarding the Liaoning (which is what my post was about) saw the light on September 24th. Just some days before, that ship was the centerpiece of China’s largest air force show in their entire history.
So, even if it left China on the 25th… IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR IT TO BE IN SYRIA ON THE 24th!!!
Just take a look at a world’s map my friend
As I said, the info is a lie.
Facts and numbers are, well… facts and numbers.
September 29, 2015 at 9:14 PM
David ask JW for admin right, so YOU can post peaces thoroughly checked by yourself .
September 29, 2015 at 9:31 PM
Hi joop,
thanks for the invitation.
But it’s not what I do, and that’s why I’ve never opened my own web page.
And there’s another reason, and it is that I travel a lot due to my work, so that’s why sometimes, like this summer for example, i can be almost three months at a time without posting anything.
But as I said, thanks anyway.
September 30, 2015 at 12:42 AM
Bugger , but understandable .