06/17/2018
PM spoke with Putin and Pompeo over the weekend on Iran and Syria; Netanyahu: Iran needs to withdraw from all of Syria. PM met with Russian head of Police Dictorate in Jerusalem on Friday.
Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the weekend, the talks centered on Iran’s presence in Syria.
Russia agreed to strengthen its military coordination with Israel in southern Syria during a call on Friday. The prime minister confirmed the talks, stating on Sunday “Over the weekend I spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. We discussed regional issues and focused – of course – on Syria.”
He reported “I reiterated our guiding principles regarding Syria. First of all, Iran needs to withdraw from all of Syria. Second, we will take action – and are already taking action – against efforts to establish a militarily presence by Iran and its proxies in Syria both close to the border and deep inside Syria. We will act against these efforts anywhere in Syria.”
Russia confirmed the talks, stating both sides “voiced readiness to strengthen coordination on Syria, including on combating international terrorism.”
Netanyahu also met with the head of Russia’s Military Police Directorate, Vladimir Ivanovsky, who traveled to Jerusalem on Friday, their meeting part of military coordination between Jerusalem and the Kremlin.
Addressing the press following the International Homeland Security Forum in Jerusalem, Netanyahu warned that Iran’s influence is not limited to the region, but to Europe as well. He warned “If Iran makes good on its threat, it will do so by utilizing 80,000 Shiite fighters, which will cause religious wars to erupt again,” later reiterating the effect it would have on immigrants in Europe, as a “recipe for a re-inflammation of another civil war… I should say a theological war, a religious war – and the sparks of that could be millions more that go into Europe and so on.”