WarSclerotic

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman claimed Sunday morning that the Ayatollah regime in Tehran was “living on borrowed time,” expressing his hope that US President Donald Trump’s Korean model of complete denuclearization could be implemented in Iran as wel.

In an interview with Army Radio, Liberman repeated Israel’s position that it is “determined to prevent an Iranian presence in Syria, and we will do everything so that doesn’t happen. The danger on the northern border is serious and real.”

Liberman praised Trump’s demand from North Korea that its nuclear program be completely dismantled, saying “I hope that the model of Korea completely giving up its nuclear program can be implemented in Iran’s case as well.”

However, he continued, “We have seen the opposite — an announcement by Ayatollah [Ali] Khamenei that he has ordered to accelerate the nuclear programs in his country.”

On the internal situation in Iran, he commented that “I am following the turmoil in Iran, and there hasn’t been such turmoil since the Khomeini revolution,” referring to the 1979 Islamic revolution orchestrated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

“If the economic sanctions continue, the Ayatollah regime is living on borrowed time,” he concluded.

Israel has repeatedly vowed it will not tolerate Iran’s military presence in Syria and has carried out airstrikes on targets in the country, including last month in response to Iran’s firing of rockets from Syria at the Golan Heights.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran (L), US President Donald Trump at the White House (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON)

Israel fears that as the Syrian civil war winds down, Iran, whose forces and Shiite proxies have backed President Bashar Assad, will entrench militarily in the neighboring country and turn its focus on Israel.

‘Improving Gaza’s economy won’t end terror’

Liberman also spoke about the Gaza Strip, claiming that the protests and tensions in the enclave don’t originate from its collapsing economy — as many, including in Israel, have said. He called for an end to the “illusions and hallucinations that improving the economy will end terror.

He spoke with with Army Radio ahead of a security cabinet meeting to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which has been cited as a major factor fueling violent clashes on Israel’s border with the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.

Gaza’s woes have been exacerbated by an ongoing dispute between Hamas and the PA, which has cut the salaries it pays to workers in Gaza and imposed various sanctions, including cutting of payments for electricity supplies to the enclave.

“There are three reasons for the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip,” Liberman said.

The first, he said, was Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, “who one day decided to stop transferring funds to Gaza. Just last week he transferred half of the April salaries.” He was echoing similar criticism made Saturday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The second reason he cited was Hamas, the terror group ruling Gaza, “which invests millions of dollars on tunnels, and isn’t willing to funnel a single shekel to the education or healthcare systems in the Strip.”

But the primary obstacle to a solution according to Liberman, was Hamas’s objection to returning the Israeli captives in Gaza — civilians Avera Mengistu and Hisham a-Sayed, who both crossed into Gaza of their own accord in 2014 and 2015, and the bodies of IDF soldiers Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul which were abducted in the 2014 war known in Israel as Operation Protective Edge.

A Palestinian youth uses a slingshot to hurl stones at Israeli forces during clashes near the border with Israel, east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on June 8, 2018. (Said Khatib/AFP)

Hamas “can get a generous humanitarian package if it returns the missing Israelis,” Liberman suggested.

Gaza faces a lack of electricity, drinkable water and food. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on the Strip which they say is designed to prevent Hamas from importing weapons and other goods that could be used to build fortifications or tunnels.

Four Gazans were killed in clashes at the border Friday, the latest in a series of protests dubbed the “Great March of Return.” The IDF said people used helium-filled balloons to carry explosives, detonated by remote control, in attempts to attack troops.

The defense minister said Hamas doesn’t recognize Israel’s right to exist and therefore will continue with hostilities no matter the situation in Gaza. He claimed that the thousands who protested and clashed with IDF troops on Friday were connected “directly or indirectly” with Hamas and had been left no choice but to attend the demonstration.

“Whoever thinks improving the civilian and economic situation in Gaza will halt the terror kites and the violence, is simply wrong,” he charged. “Enough with all sorts of hallucinations and illusions that improving the economy will end terror.

“The opposite is true — they’ll understand that with use of force and violence they can achieve political goals. To improve the reality in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas regime must be toppled. Whoever wants more than four hours of electricity every day must topple the Hamas regime.”

Two Palestinians help fly a ‘fire kite’ from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory during mass demonstrations along the security fence on June 8, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

Liberman said Israel was successfully dealing with the wave of violence, claiming that two thirds of the incendiary kites sent over the border have been intercepted, but vowed to find a better way to eliminate that threat.

“Hamas is trying to drag us to a confrontation and is willing to pay heavy prices,” he said.

“We need to understand that the Israeli people’s morale is crucial — there are kites and fires, and that’s unpleasant, but in the end people continue with their daily lives. We have managed to intercept two thirds of the kites, but no kite should pass and cause a fire,” the defense minister added.

Ministers at Sunday’s cabinet meeting are likely to authorize the use of live fire against Palestinians flying the attack kites and balloons into Israel, Israel Radio reported on Saturday, quoting Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Syrian President Bashar Assad denied Russia coordinated or even knew in advance about reported Israeli strikes inside his country and downplayed Moscow’s role in determining Iran’s presence there, in an interview published Sunday.

“Russia never coordinated with anyone against Syria, either politically or militarily, and that’s contradiction; how could they help the Syrian Army advancing and at the same time work with our enemies in order to destroy our army,” Assad told the British Daily Mail newspaper.

When pressed on whether Russia knew in advance of airstrikes carried out by Israel, Assad responded “that’s not true, that’s not true, definitely. We know the details.”

Israeli officials have praised their ongoing coordination with Russia amid efforts to push Iranian forces and allied Shiite militias away from the border on the Golan Heights. Israel fears Iran is attempting to gain a foothold near the border to launch attacks against the Jewish state,

Several unconfirmed reports in Israel have claimed Moscow was informed of airstrikes on Syrian and Iranian positions as tensions have risen in recent weeks.

“The State of Israel appreciates Russia’s understanding of our security needs — especially on our northern border,” Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman told Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu during a visit to Moscow on May 31 to discuss Syria and Iran. “It is important to continue the dialogue between us and to keep an open line between the IDF and Russian army.”

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman meets with Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, in Moscow, Russia on May 31, 2018. (Ariel Hermoni/Defense Ministry)

On May 10, Israel unleashed a heavy bombardment against what it said were Iranian military installations in Syria after an Iranian rocket barrage targeting the Golan. It was the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.

This photo provided early Thursday, May 10, 2018, by the government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media, shows missiles rise into the sky as Israeli missiles hit air defense position and other military bases, in Damascus, Syria. (Syrian Central Military Media, via AP)

Israel has been mostly using Lebanon’s airspace to strike targets inside Syria in an apparent move to avoid any conflict with Russia’s warplanes that fly over Syria. Russia has a major air base near Syria’s coast from where warplanes have been taking off to strike at insurgents throughout Syria.

“There is an increasing evidence that shows that Russia has turned a blind eye to Israel’s airstrike in Syria against Iran’s military presence,” said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics. “This is a direct message that Russia does not want Iran to have a hegemonic position in Syria.”

Russia and Iran have been the main backers of Assad but Moscow also has close relations with Israel whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russia several times over the past two years. On one trip last month, he stood close to Putin while attending a massive parade for Russian troops marking victory in World War II.

Russia has been reportedly mediating for Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters to withdraw from areas close to the Israeli border where Syrian troops are expected to launch an offensive against rebels.

However Assad claimed Russia, which is his biggest backer, was not involved in making decisions about Syria, though he hinted that Moscow and Damascus may not see eye to eye on the issue.

“They never, during our relation, try to dictate, even if there are differences; because there is a war and because there’s high dynamism now in the region, it’s natural to have differences between the different parties, whether within our government or other governments; Russia-Syria, Syria-Iran, Iran-Russia, and within these governments, that’s very natural, but at the end the only decision about what’s going on in Syria and what’s going to happen, it’s a Syrian decision,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Syrian President Bashar Assad during their meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, May 17, 2018. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Calls for Tehran to end its military presence in Syria have been on the rise in recent weeks, hinting at tensions between Moscow and Damascus.

At a meeting with Assad, who visited the Russian city of Sochi last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that a political settlement in Syria should encourage foreign countries to withdraw their troops.

Putin’s envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, later commented that the Russian leader’s statement was aimed at the United States and Turkey, along with Iran and Hezbollah. It marked a rare instance in which Moscow suggested Iran should not maintain a permanent military presence in the country.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a list of demands last month for a new nuclear deal with Iran, including the pullout of its forces from Syria. Israel has also warned it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.

A Russian air force technician reports to a pilot that a Su-34 bomber is ready for a combat mission at Hemeimeem airbase in Syria on January 20, 2016. (AP Photo/Vladimir Isachenkov)

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mikdad however has said on Russia’s Sputnik news agency that “this topic is not even on the agenda of discussion, since it concerns the sovereignty of Syria.”

During the interview published Sunday Assad seemed to admit the presence of Iranian troops in his country, days after denying there were any there.

“The Russians were invited by the Syrian government, their existence in Syria is a legitimate existence, the same for the Iranians,” he said. He also said Syria was fighting the Islamic State with the help of Russia and Iran.

In an interview on May 31, Assad dismissed reports that Iranians had been killed in recent Israeli airstrikes, saying there were no Iranian fighters in the country.

“We do not have Iranian troops. We never had, and you cannot hide it,” he told the Russia Today news outlet, “Like we invited the Russians, we could have invited the Iranians.”

But he also added in the RT interview that “We have Iranian officers who work with the Syrian army.”

Illustrative image of a tank flying the Hezbollah terror group’s flag seen in the Qara area in Syria’s Qalamoun region on August 28, 2017 (AFP Photo/Louai Beshara)

Tensions in the Syria-Iran-Russia axis came to the fore last week when a Russian force deployment on the Syria-Lebanon border in a Hezbollah stronghold sparked protests by the Lebanese militant group, prompting the force to withdraw from its positions only a day later in a rare sign of tension between the allies.

The Russian move was not expected as Moscow’s military police have been deploying in areas controlled by Syrian government forces and close to insurgent positions. The outskirts of the Syrian town of Qusair where the Russian troops set up three observation positions on Monday have been held by Hezbollah and Syrian troops since 2013, when they drove rebels from the area.

The Russian deployment and subsequent withdrawal shows that as rebels are being defeated in different parts of Syria, frictions could rise between Assad’s main foreign backers — Russia and Iran — and the militias Tehran backs throughout Syria.

“They came and deployed without coordination,” said an official with the so-called “Axis of Resistance” led by Iran, which includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other groups fighting alongside President Bashar Assad’s forces.

“It’s better if they don’t come back. There is no work for them there. There is no Daesh or any other terrorist organization,” the official said, referring to the Islamic State group and other insurgents that the Syrian government and its allies call terrorist organizations. “What do they want to observe?” he asked.

Asked if there is tension between Hezbollah and Russian troops, the official refused to comment, speaking to the Associated Press by telephone from Syria on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. He said that after the Russian troops left, Syrian forces belonging to the army’s 11th Division replaced them.

In 2013, Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group, openly joined the Syrian civil war along with Assad’s forces capturing the then rebel stronghold of Qusair in June that year after losing dozens of its battle-hardened fighters.

An explosion is seen coming from an army base, allegedly used by Iran-backed militias, outside the northern Syria city of Hama on April 29, 2018. (Screen capture; Facebook)

The Russian deployment outside Qusair came after Israeli warplanes struck the nearby Dabaa air base on May 24, according to Syrian activists who said Hezbollah arms depots were hit. There was no word on casualties.

A top Iranian security official said that Tehran will maintain an advisory role in Syria and continue to support “resistance groups.” The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani meanwhile told Al-Jazeera TV that as long as Syria faces a “terrorist” threat and Damascus requests its presence, “we will stay in Syria.”

And for his part, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Friday that “if the whole world tried to impose on us a withdrawal from Syria they will not be able to make us leave,” adding that his group would only leave at the request of the Syrian government.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration’s envoy in charge of jumpstarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks called on Sunday for the ousting of the Palestinian Authority’s longtime chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, accusing him of exacerbating the conflict and impeding progress toward peace, after the latter attacked Washington over its peacemaking role.

“We have heard your voice for decades and it has not achieved anything close to Palestinian aspirations or anything close to a comprehensive peace agreement,” wrote Jason Greenblatt, addressing Erekat directly, in the Israeli daily Haaretz. “Other Palestinian perspectives might help us finally achieve a comprehensive peace agreement where Palestinian and Israeli lives can be better.”

Greenblatt did not mention who he would rather see in the longtime diplomat’s prominent position.

In his op-ed, Greenblatt, Trump’s special representative for international negotiations, was responding to a scathing op-ed Erekat penned for the same newspaper last month, in which he lamented US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

He also castigated the White House for what he characterized as its complicity in Israel’s mistreatment of the Palestinians.

Erekat derided the close relationship between Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and contemptuously noted the smiling presence of Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at the Jerusalem embassy’s opening just as deadly violence was unfolding at the Gaza border. The column was titled, “Partners in occupation: Trump provides the anti-Palestinian incitement, Israel the bullets.”

For more than 30 years, Erekat has been one of the highest ranking Palestinian officials, frequently leading negotiating efforts with Israel and the United States, going as far back to the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference brokered by former president George H.W. Bush. Most recently, he led the Palestinians in former secretary of state John Kerry’s efforts to solidify an accord, opposite his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.

Erekat is very close to PA president Mahmoud Abbas, whose health has long been questioned. The prospect of Abbas’s death or removal from power has led many Middle East analysts to worry who might replace him, and how that would change the character of the PA.

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat in his Ramallah office, November 23, 2015. (AFP/Abbas Momani)

Over the last two months, tens of thousands of Gazans have been undertaking weekly “March of Return” protests at the border. Rioters had tried to damage and break the security fence to infiltrate Israel, while others have attacked soldiers with petrol bombs, bombs, rocks and burning tires.

Those clashes reached their most intense level on the same day as the embassy opening on May 14, when Israeli forces killed more than 60 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry — the vast majority members of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups.

While the protests began organically, Hamas, the Islamist terror group that rules the Strip, seized the demonstrations early on and began orchestrating them.

Erekat’s initial op-ed — to which Greenblatt was responding — came several days after that conflagration.

In his Haaretz piece on Saturday, Greeblatt said that Erekat’s column included claims that were “in many respects simply inaccurate.” He did not go into much detail, other than the Palestinian official’s contention that the embassy move was “part of a US attempt to force an Israeli-written agreement on the Palestinians.”

Greenblatt disputed that characterization. He quoted from Trump’s speech formally recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December, in which the president said that, despite the relocation of the diplomatic mission, “the specific boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem are subject to final status negotiations between the parties.”

Trump’s move was highly controversial, eliciting criticism from much of the international community, as well as former US peace negators who argued it would inflame tensions in the region and further compromise America’s capacity to act as a useful-but-flawed broker in peace talks.

Since that decision, PA President Mahmoud Abbas has refused to meet with Trump officials and has said the US can no longer act as an honest mediator in negations between the sides.