WarSclerotic

Russia’s deputy foreign minister denied Moscow had formed an alliance with Iran in Syria and said the Kremlin was deeply committed to Israel’s security in an interview with CNN, Friday.

“We in no way underestimate the importance of measures that would ensure very strong security of the state of Israel. The Israelis know this, the U.S. knows this, everyone else, including the Iranians, the Turks, the government in Damascus. This is one of the top priorities of Russia,” Sergei Ryabkov told CNN.

Asked whether Russia and Iran were allies “on the ground” in Syria, Ryabkov said, “I wouldn’t use this type of word to describe where we are with Iran. We are working together with them … but we do not see at any given moment completely eye to eye on what happens.”

He noted that Moscow “acted last year to persuade Tehran to kind of withdraw from the border with Israel with some heavy equipment so that this area would be more protected and there would be no attempts on the part of highly controlled militias to attack Israel from that front.”

According to Ryabkov, Russia had been prepared “to go even further” at the time, “although it’s always very difficult to negotiate with the Iranians. But it didn’t work because of [the] U.S. and Europeans’ inability to guarantee even as, you know, some extension of reimposition of U.S. extraterritorial sanctions on Iran.”

Meanwhile, Foreign Policy magazine reported that the Pentagon was weighing a plan that would see the U.S. maintain a military presence in a base in southeastern Syria in an attempt to thwart the establishment of a direct supply route from Iran to Syria through Iraq.

U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty in the Golan Heights got a significant boost over the weekend after a senior Democrat joined prominent Republicans in this effort.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber, told Jewish Insider over the weekend that “Israel should maintain control of the Golan Heights.” In response to a question from Jewish Insider on whether he would support a resolution on the matter, his office did not respond.

Israel captured parts of the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. The area, which was officially annexed by Israel, includes the strategically important Mount Hermon.

In December a draft resolution calling on the U.S. government to recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights was unveiled in the Senate. The draft resolution was introduced by pro-Israel Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton.

Hoyer is the latest Democratic representative in the House to voice support for Israel’s continued presence in the Golan Heights. Last week, Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) sent a letter to President Trump, saying the U.S. should show its support for Israel’s security by considering this gesture.

“The United States must make clear that we are committed to rolling back Iran’s presence in Syria and consider a range of measures, including recognition of the Golan [as sovereign Israeli territory], to protect our ally Israel from serious threats on its borders,” Gottheimer wrote.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) has also expressed support for recognition.

Any resolution passed by the House or Senate will only have a symbolic meaning. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that only the executive branch can decide on U.S. policy when it comes to recognizing the sovereignty of other countries.

The Coalition for the Israeli Golan, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that has been lobbying for U.S. recognition of Israel’s sovereignty, said it “welcomed the fact that senior Democrats are now insisting that the U.S. government announce this recognition as a complementary step to the U.S. withdrawal from Syria.”

The Chairman of the Coalition, Zvi Hauser, called on the Israeli government “to make this a top priority and to end its perceptual stalemate by dramatically increasing the Jewish settlement in the area.”

The Israeli effort to get U.S. recognition began toward the end of President Barack Obama’s presidency. It recently picked up pace in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

Officials in the Trump administration have indicated in recent months that they were open to an official U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as sovereign Israeli territory.  U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Israel Hayom in September that he “can’t imagine a circumstance where the Golan Heights will be returned to Syria.” He added: “I can’t think of a less deserving person to receive this kind of reward than [Syrian President] Bashar Assad.”

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday warned Israel over its continued attacks in Syria, saying a miscalculation could drag the region into a war.

Nasrallah made the comment during a wide-ranging interview that lasted more than three hours with the Beirut-based Al Mayadeen TV station.

Video: Reuters

Iran, Syria and Hezbollah could “at any moment” decide to deal differently with Israel’s actions in Syria, Nasrallah said, and hinted that Tel Aviv might be a target.

Addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said: “Be cautious. Don’t continue what you are doing in Syria. Don’t miscalculate and don’t drag the region into a war or a major confrontation.”

Nasrallah said circumstances in the region have changed as Iran and its allies, including his terrorist organization, expand their influence in the region. This means any war can be on more than one front, Nasrallah warned.

Israel has recently increased its attacks on Iranian military targets in Syria, confirming such targeting in a shift from its longstanding policy of playing down or not commenting on its military activities in the war-torn country.

Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy, and it has repeatedly warned that it will not allow Iranian troops – who have been fighting alongside Syrian government forces – to maintain a permanent presence in post-war Syria.

In the latest violence, the IDF claimed responsibility for a series of airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria last Monday, saying it was responding to an Iranian missile attack a day earlier. The Iranian launch followed a rare Israeli daylight air raid near Damascus International Airport.

Nasrallah said Netanyahu is the person “most disappointed” by U.S. plans to withdraw from Syria and cited the withdrawal as another “failure.”

Nasrallah’s appearance followed news reports in Israel and elsewhere that his health was failing. He dismissed the reports as “lies.”

“I don’t suffer from any health problems,” said Nasrallah, who seemed relaxed and at times joked with his interviewer and sipped on tea and water. “I have been active, and I also lost weight,” he said with a giggle.

Another report said Nasrallah was under house arrest, guarded by Iranian forces, for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars from the terrorist organization’s coffers.

The Hezbollah leader has customarily addressed his supporters and made TV appearances about pressing issues in the region and Lebanon, but the 59-year-old had not appeared since November.

Nasrallah described his silence as intentional, saying Hezbollah chose not to address Israel’s attacks so as not to feed what he called an Israeli “publicity stunt.”

In December, the IDF launched “Operation Northern Shield” to detect and destroy what it Hezbollah’s vast network of attack tunnels built for its fighters to sneak across the border into Israel, capture territory and stage attacks. Israel discovered at least six tunnels, which it said were Hezbollah’s prime strategic investment for its next potential war.

In the first comments about the tunnel operation, Nasrallah played down the discoveries, saying Hezbollah would need more than a few tunnels if it ever decided to invade Israel.

He also said Hezbollah has “for years” been able to enter Israel and that at least one of the tunnels was built more than a decade ago.

“This is a 13-year-old [Israeli] intelligence failure,” Nasrallah said.

“Part of our plan in the next war is to enter [the] Galilee [region in northern Israel], a part of our plan we are capable of, God willing. The important thing is that we have this capability and we have had it for years,” Nasrallah said.

He added that all of Israel would be the battlefield and reiterated that the group now had precision rockets that could strike deep into Israel.

He said Israel was still looking for more tunnels, despite having said its operation to find them was over. He said Israel had only discovered some tunnels, adding “it is not known” if more exist.

Last week, U.N. Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov said that at least two of the tunnels found by Israel crossed the Blue Line, the U.N.-demarcated border between Israel and Lebanon, “and thereby constituted violations.”

U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, said both sides must stick to their side of the Blue Line and that Hezbollah must leave the area near the frontier.