JERUSALEM – Israel has set up a joint mechanism with the Russian military to coordinate their operations in Syria and avoid any accidental confrontations, a senior Israel military official said Thursday.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of military regulations, said that teams headed by each of the militaries’ deputy chiefs will hold their first meeting in two weeks and will discuss coordination of aerial, naval and electromagnetic operations around Syria.
Russia has backed the Assad regime throughout the nation’s civil war, which has killed more than 250,000 people, and recently deployed forces there to help Syria in its battle against Islamic militants.
Russia has sought to cast arms supplies to Assad’s government as part of international efforts to combat the Islamic State group and other militant organizations in Syria.
The United States and its allies see Assad as the cause of the Syrian crisis, and Washington has warned Moscow against beefing up its presence. But those warnings have been softer in tone, compared to the original American position that demanded Assad’s ouster.
The joint mechanism is a result of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting this week in Moscow with President Vladimir Putin, in which Netanyahu raised concerns over the new Russian involvement.
Israel has mostly stayed on the sidelines throughout the Syrian war, though it has returned fire when rockets or mortar shells have strayed into Israeli-controlled territory. Its primary concern has been the potential transfer of advanced weaponry to the Shiite Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon and Israel has occasionally carried out airstrikes against suspected weapons shipments.
Israel has no interest in seeing Assad, a long-time nemesis and key ally of Iran and Hezbollah, prevail. But before the civil war the Assad family maintained decades of relative quiet along the frontier, and Israel fears that if the government falls Syria could be overrun by Islamic extremists.
Israeli officials believe that Iran has recently sent hundreds of fighters into Syria to help Assad’s beleaguered forces. Hezbollah forces, sent in from neighboring Lebanon, have suffered heavy losses.
“Israel has mostly stayed on the sidelines, only returning fire when rockets came in”. Really? So I guess we should should ignore the airstrikes against Syrian forces that just seemed to help isis out. Oh yeah, and they’re concerned about hezbollah getting their hands on some weapons the Russians might give syria. But there were no concerns about isis, al queda, al nusra, or any of the other proxy mercenaries getting their hands on weapons shipments that always seem to be “mistakenly” dropped off in their vicinity. Wonder why?
If Putin is doing what I think he’s doing he has put a stick in the Zionist Israeli spokes by denying them Crimea. His hospitals have treated both Ukraine and Don Bas rebels alike. His government has encouraged the Don Bas militias to treat the surrendering Ukraine soldiers with decency and like brothers. In short trying to defuse the bomb that the Zionists have planted in Ukraine. Its why US marines are guarding Poreshenko so his own military doesn’t assassinate him (may happen yet).
In Syria Putin has moved to check the Israel military and security services in their “Agent of Caoss” operations there. He’s checked the US army and CIA operations in support of the Israeli mercenary terrorist organization called ISIS. Hes now in a better position to grab prisoners (Israeli and US agents and military advisers) from ISIS to trot out on the world stage at some point to finally give the thread holding that seam together a good hard tug to unravel the whole feed bag of decided, and murder campaigns for the entire world to see. Israel and Obummer the Zionist prostitute in the Washington DC are now in a position of playing a very dangerous game. The jig is already up, but is just a question of time and good opportunity to present what Moscow has cooked up. Putin is a modern day Csar it is looking more and more like in spite of his family’s NKVD and KGB past. We patriots are watching this guy and will see if what we suspct about him is right. Hope he is a Sanislov Levchenko, or Victor Belenko in charge there in that ancient city.