Netanyahu says Israel won’t allow Iran military presence in Syria
EghtesadOnline: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held talks with the Russian defense minister in East Jerusalem al-Quds, saying Tel Aviv will not allow Iran to establish a military presence in Syria.
"The meeting mostly dealt with Iran's attempt to establish itself militarily in Syria," Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Tuesday.
"Prime Minister Netanyahu told Russian Defense Minister [Sergei] Shoigu, 'Iran needs to understand that Israel will not allow this,'" it added.
According to PressTV, their talks came after the Israeli military violated Syria’s territory and launched an air strike on an anti-aircraft battery in Syria in the vicinity of the Lebanese border on Monday.
In response, the Syrian army targeted an intruding warplane and forced the fighter jets to retreat.
Both Iran and Russia are supporting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in its fight against terrorism. Iran has been providing military advisory support for the Syrian forces at the request of Damascus.
During the talks with the Russian foreign minister, Netanyahu also claimed that "Iran will have an arsenal of nuclear weapons within 8-10 years," if Tehran’s nuclear deal with the world powers is not revised.
Netanyahu’s repeated opposition to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, comes as US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he would not certify Iran’s compliance with the agreement.
While Trump did not pull Washington out of the nuclear deal, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.
This is while the other signatories to the JCPOA, the EU and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have unanimously confirmed Iran’s commitment to the deal and warned against the ramifications of Trump’s decision to abandon the landmark deal.
Iran says it will not agree to any revision of the nuclear deal.